The Fall
by Captain Combat Beard
Summary: Climb to the top of the world, and as you stand tall, you will see, that when you fall, you will fall from a height most men will never reach.
1. Prologue: I Hate Politics

"You can't just let her be!"

When you hear the words "teased" and "bullied", you tend to think of school and kids.

"She's a good child, she wouldn't abuse it."

But, due to private schooling, to royalty it is different.

"_Bias!_"

The names are the same...

"You fail to see I am being honest."

But they all come with sticks and stones.

"Your daughter has the temper like the fire she throws! She is not fit for royal power!"

The girl in question sat next to her father. When these trials first began, she was not anxious or worried, but as the trials progressed, and she pieced it all together, she figured out just how much this trial could effect her life.

The king was annoyed. "She's helped this whole kingdom with it, even you! Surely that has earned your trust by now?"

But now it's just routine.

"You aren't BORN a dictator, you _BECOME_ one. With time. All it would take for your daughter to become a genocidal tyrant would be some off words."

"Like the ones leaving your mouth?"

"Is that a _threat,_ my king?"

"It's the truth."

"We've been through this times before, do I have to say it again? If she gets mad at that, then she _shouldn't_ be able to inherit the throne!"

"Because she has rational feelings?"

The noble rose from his seat. "_What are you implying?_"

The judge slammed the gavel on his well-furnished and designed desk.

"Calm down, sir." The judge ordered, laying the wooden hammer's head on the pedestal he whacked.

"She has notable, prominent anger problems, she has proved their existence in the past, and you're telling me if she kicked her flaming high heels in my eye, it would be _rational?_" The paranoid noble exclaimed.

The king looked back at him with low, flat, and annoyed eyebrows. "In the past. She has, since, learned to control most of it. Most of her irrationalities, at least. Unlike _you_."

**CLACK CLACK CLACK**

"That's enough of you two." The judge complained, sensing anger spark up between the two. "Now, if the Jury has anything new to say..."

And they didn't. Six say guilty and six say innocent on a trial of twelve. A tie. At first, it was unsettling, so they replaced the jury. The second tie, which was the next court case, it was confusing. The third, the case after that, outrageous. The more it went on, the more it seemed like some cruel joke found only on political cartoons; the entire kingdom is split so evenly on a topic, they can't pull in a jury with more people in favor of either side than the other. Even the girl herself felt split.

Perhaps that's what it is, a cruel joke played by the populace. The political cartoon joke may be accurate, but there was one thing it couldn't have gotten right: It assumed that it had to end at some point, and it was just to tease the poor girl. They thought it would be over in a month. A month turned into half a year, and then into a full year. Eventually, one who would normally say guilty would say innocent, and close the case, but that is when another noble comes in, and starts the same exact thing as the last one, perhaps with fabrications about the girl ready to spew from their mouths. It all felt like one case, with different plaintiffs every couple of months.

When the anniversary of the trials beginning hit, most people stopped listening to juries. That's when it stopped being a trial by jury, but an argument between a king and a legion of nobles over a girl's right to marry, inherit the throne, stay within the royal palace, stay within the kingdom, and to live, right in front of her.

And she just sat there with a cold, blank stare.

"Another tie by the jury." The judge said, putting on tone of false amusement. He took a pen and marked a tally on an old piece of paper with hundreds of other marks across it. "Day number six of the sixteenth trial of Princess Blaze, no verdict. Two weeks from now, you three will return at the same time to this court to continue."

"Yes, your honor." The defendant and the plaintiff said in unison.

The judge nodded. "Good. It would be nice to come to some conclusion of this whole debacle after... what, _seven years_?"

The king shook his head. "If the jury is honestly split like that, let it be..."

The judge sighed.

"This system is biased." The noble groaned on the way out.

The judge etched his fingernail onto his desk, gaining a smile. "And that's the _two hundredth time_ I have heard in my court room. _Congratulations_."

The same people. The same time. Every two weeks. For two hours. For seven years. Seven and half, to be specific. Repeatedly told by old, respected nobles, that she is "too powerful" for the throne, claiming she'd kill those who pose a threat to her or get in the way of what she wants. Her father, protecting his only child took the matter into his own hands to defend his daughter's reputation. He had never expected the noble families his ancestors befriended would be _so stubborn_ about it. So stubborn, that they persisted for seven years; from the moment she, as a seven year old, had only overreacted to a simple cat joke, through the times she saved her world and her people, including those angry lords, to this current day.

And there was no end in sight, even after years of repetitive trial. The appearance of a new argument was rare. They said the same things, present the same arguments, same counterarguments, and it all looped back to the first one. "Pyromaniac." "Freak." "Pussy." And unlike any normal case of teasing and bullying, there was no "my dad can beat up your dad" or "I could beat up you" way out. Those would only prove his point. Due to law, she had to sit and listen to the paranoid and crazed men insult her every other Wednesday from the day she turned seven until now, when she was fourteen for half a year. Not because they are right, but because they had believed some day she could snap and ruin the country she worked so hard to save, and if her father were to simply decline and send them off, they would get the media and the people against them. They would rebel. So instead of shooing them away and dealing with a rebellion, the king took it in the mannered and civilized way he did.

But this wasn't law. It couldn't be. Blaze didn't see these as actual court cases, not anymore. She just saw them as anger management sessions for the royal nobles to let out all their anger at a girl, calling her a witch. She was fine with other insults, but "witch" hit her hardest, because of how they were treated in the old world.

The society did not smile upon those with special powers, especially witches. They watched with cautious eyes, since most people that did, did not use them for good deeds. They were a rare breed, and for the rare breed, they used rare punishments for their crimes to discourage the rest. These punishments were typically old fashioned. Old fashioned, as in lynching, beheading, iron maidens, roasting, and such, depending on how they used their powers. Some would call it barbaric. Although she wasn't _doomed_ if found guilty, people wouldn't be to happy if she ever used them again.

Yet, disregarding all of the hate, Blaze used her powers to protect her people from Eggman Nega, the constant, relentless and psychotic threat to the whole planet. Not just her people, but the nobles as well. And still, they wanted her hanging from a rope around her neck on her own front lawn. With nobles forming lines to harass her by trial, she swore there was some conspiracy against her.

She hated politics.

As she was walked outside, the roar of the crowds filled her ears. Whether they were shouting at her, or shouting at people with a different opinion on her, whether it is for or against her royalty status, she hated it. She wished she could just turn off her ears. She'd be fine if she didn't have to come to the court trials, but the law required her to.

In an attempt to ignore the crowd, she looked at the snipers. They were her guards from afar. From the moment her father told her she had seven teams of two watching over her every time she walked out of the court room, she spent the walks back to the armored car looking for them, spending seconds at a time. She never met any in person, and did not know which group she found. She found six total. She never quite found the last one.

But then, something shook. The something budged on the roof of the building just to the right. Blaze slowed down to see what it was. Whatever it was, it was not there now. She walked down the walkway toward the escort car a few more steps, and just as she was at the door, she looked again.

There he was. White, yellow eyes, holding a rifle, pointing it straight at her.

All the other snipers were dressed in black.

And that's when she realized she stopped moving completely.

* * *

><p>Blaze glared at the assassin's only slightly faster boat from the bow of her only slightly slower battleship, and groaned.<p>

She chased him all across the capital city to the ports, and she almost had him, but he had taken a speedboat that already had the engine started there. Sure, she was currently aboard the Ocean Tornado, which along with the Deep Typhoon was taken from Marine with permission (and on the grounds that they were plain dangerous in seven year old hands) when Blaze returned to the mainland, and it could blow the tiny boat to bits very quickly, but by the time it would take to turn the ships guns toward the boat and aim, he would already be near the edge of reasonable combat range. The range alone is enough to disqualify the flamethrower. And even then, it's too fast of a target to attempt to combat with cannons, and too small to be hit with a machine gun, from this distance at least. It wasn't much faster than this battleship, but it was enough that by the boat turned to open fire, the speedboat would have a second or two window of being vulnerable until the shooters are just guessing where the rounds will land. So all they could do was follow him until he landed somewhere, or stopped. It was fast enough to get away, but slow enough to mock Blaze further.

Which brought her to the next question: How much planning did the assassin do? Blaze saw that he had simply knocked out the sniper team stationed on the building, took the rifle, and shot at her. And _missed_. Then, taking a completely improvised route with a lot of pushing and shoving involved, he found the port, took a speed boat, and head off. Given the rest of his "plan", it probably wasn't even his. Regardless, he executed what little of an idea he had to do decently, minus the killing her part.

"Your highne-Um, Blaze..." Gardon began, correcting himself to what he remembered her preference. "We have identified the assassin."

"I already know." Blaze responded. "I hate politics, but I have to follow them."

Gardon understood. "Ah, yes."

To top it all off, she knew who the assassin was. A prince of a rival kingdom, which was in shambles. Because he thought the majority of his people were perfect. He was too naïve. He expected too much from his people. She almost felt sorry for the situation his nation was in, but now she didn't give a second thought. Nations other than hers were not her problem, and the attempt on her life ruined any positives the nation might have had for her. Blaze didn't know what she'd do to him when she got her hands on her. Probably return the assassination favor. Maybe she was too hateful, but she couldn't think of anything that could lead to another friend over the fact that he just tried to end her life.

"And Blaze?" Gardon asked again.

"What?" She asked.

"There is a nasty storm ahead, and he's heading right into it." Gardon explained.

"Really? With just a speed boat?" Blaze wondered. She was a bit worried she wouldn't get revenge.

Gardon nodded. "Yes. There have been cyclones spotted within it."

Blaze shook her head in disbelief. "I wouldn't think he had nothing prepared for us this whole time. Get ready for an ambush of some kind. And maybe while he's trying to get over the waves, we could plow through them and get some good shots off. Maybe."

"Yes, your majesty!" Gardon saluted, accidentally letting the "majesty" out from his lips, before turning to shout orders to the crew members. As Gardon let the term slip from his mouth, Blaze did as well. She didn't like nagging on people for the smallest things.

Looking at the boat ride into the storm, Blaze wondered quietly, as if to speak to her attacker. "What are you _doing?_"

As the two ships dredged deeper into the storm, it got worse and worse. The waves slammed onto the sides of the boat, and winds ripped as whirlwinds formed and made the situation all the more worse. The assassin's speed boat had to have been flipped at least once, but it always landed in a proper functioning condition.

As the scene got more and more confusing, the less she cared about the thunder, rain and lightning, and the more she focused about the speedboat's miraculous landing ability. Waves that managed to reach over the hull and hit the deck of the Ocean Tornado would send the tiny speed boat straight into the air, but then it would backflip, and land as if it went off a tiny ramp. It was irritating to watch. She felt her hair stand on end. Despite her dull pains, she almost managed to block out the rest of the world.

"Blaze!" Gardon tried shouting over the fierce winds, to no avail.

She squinted her eyes. It really was irritating to watch. Her eyes felt dull pains, she was feeling tense, and she felt some different presence of force amongst the now-drowned out thunder, rain and lightning. It was something more... exotic than the winds. She wondered what it was, until she widened her eyes. Then she noticed something in the corner of her eye and realized what was making her tense.

A tornado was getting within close vicinity of the ship was pulsing in a green aura.

She looked over one last time to the speed boat, to see it was turning, and in the driver's seat, she could see the assassin waving.

Before Blaze could shoot off every rude hand gesture she knew at him within seconds with privately practiced expertise, the Ocean Tornado tilted the other way, into the cyclone.

It was a massive cyclone of immense force. It was so strong, not only was it pushing the boat not from the wind hitting the sails but instead the wind hitting the stern of the boat, but it was creating a whirlpool, which sent the ship going faster, and closer to the tornado. Things on the boat were being lifted now, and people were grabbing onto whatever they could. Blaze grabbed onto the railing, while Gardon, desperate and in the middle between the railings, sunk his sword into the ship's deck at an angle, all the way until at least half the blade was under the deck, and held onto the hand-guard.

Everyone was ready for the ship to start being ripped apart, inevitably sinking the ship, killing most of the crew, a miracle that involved Blaze being the lone survivor, or some such event, when suddenly the green aura receded. As it receded, so did all the forces of nature. The vicious cyclone seemed to stop, the ship was beginning to rebalance itself, and not a wave hit the side of the ship.

Then came the flash, and with it, unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 1: Why Are We Here?

**Chapter One: Why Are We Here?**

Sonic walked through the Green Hill Zone, gazing around the luscious, beautiful landscape that brought fond memories, whistling the Green Hill theme.

Moments ago, the azure hedgehog received a call from Tails. Something was happening over by Emerald Coast. Tails said a storm was brewing, but not just any storm. Not only did the storm itself look pretty nasty, Tails detected some unnatural power from within it. He thought it would be best to have the number one go-to guy for rescuing, evacuating, and world saving around when trouble starts.

Sonic, having finished his nostalogic stroll through memory lane, picked up the pace, and dashed. Within minutes, he was in the city, which was beginning to look gloomy from the approaching storm, but not over-dramatically morose. At the edge of the city, it looked partly cloudy. However, it was a large city, and as Sonic raced through, it got darker, windier, and differences in the density of it all was drastic even when comparing one block to the one next to it.

When Sonic had reached the beach, he saw that GUN had managed to weave its way through the harsh storms and onto the beach, standing by in case anything bad were to happen. There was also a large metal box with a couple windows, a door that is well protected from the elements, and a large decal on the side, displaying two orange tails. It was Tails' on-site shelter for drastic conditions. It withstood the powerful winds, had deployable wheels so it could be moved around, and the entire shelter was built so that if it detects the whole shelter rotating, airbags would spring up to protect everyone inside. Sonic had seen the two tailed fox build this shelter in the spare time between adventures, and even though it was for only a few minutes, the complexity and all the things taken into account for its design amazed him.

The door swung open.

"Get inside!" Tails shouted to his best friend, holding the door open against the harsh winds. The 'porch' section, the metal walls extending two feet out to ensure the door could be opened in more situations, did little to stop the severe wind.

Sonic jogged in through the door, and Tails quickly slammed it shut.

"Hey Sonic!" Tails greeted. "Glad you could make it. I'm sure you saw how bad this is."

"Sorry I took so long, I was running from someone." He apologized.

"Who?" Tails asked.

"You know very well who." Sonic said.

Tails took his mind off that and began to focus on the topic at hand."Okay, for the most part, the storm has stopped moving, it's just staying in the same place. It's slowly gaining more energy, though, so sit tight." Tails explained.

Sonic nodded. No need for words.

They watched the storm. Tails usually watched his laptop monitor which was displaying a heat map of emerald coast, measuring the intensity of the energy in specific areas, while Sonic eyed the storm through the thick glass. Sometimes Sonic would look at the monitor, trying to make sense of it, while Tails would peek at the hurricane itself.

Sonic walked over to the monitor, leaned on the counter top, and examined the heat map. He saw that most of the storm was green, while the middle was yellow, and the dead center orange. He could see the blobs of color slowly expanding through the top of the computer window.

"This is abnormal power?" Sonic asked, bored and hardly interested. "Stuff that normally isn't there?"

"Yes, it is." Tails explained over his shoulder.

"And, how does this heat map thing work? Satellite?"

"Sensors. I planted two when I got here, and I gave two to the GUN forces to plant as far as they wanted, as I had to set up shop with this shelter. It's live, and the program I'm using focuses on the center, so if they brought it up more, it would expand upward."

Sonic then noticed a scroll bar to the side. Apparently, Tails was only looking at half of what was going on. GUN managed to bring the sensors closer to the sea. Useful for once, at least to Sonic and Tails. Normally, they jailed or shot at him for just passing by. Perhaps it was the way he passed by. Curious, Sonic grabbed the bar and brought it upward to view the newly scanned areas.

At the very top of the screen, he saw a hotspot of energy. Coming from the spot were a stream of green dots.

"Umm..." Sonic dragged on, stopping himself from panicking. He dragged the bar back down to look at the storm itself on the heat map again. It was expanding as it was before.

Sonic scrolled back up.

The hotspot of energy was suddenly launched toward the storm. Sonic followed it as it turned whatever spot it touched one tier up; blue turned to green, green turned to yellow, the yellow into orange, and orange into red. When the hotspot had stopped inside the red, the red had turned into a blinking strobe, signaling that it was an incredible amount of power.

Sonic stared at the screen with his jaw dropped in shock. He had only a clue of how the heat map worked and the scale of the energy at work, but believed he understood what he just saw. "... Son of a-"

"Sonic! Come look!" Tails shouted.

Sonic quickly stood up and ran over to the window. Glistening green particles rose from the sea and into the clouds. And, as the green particles were absorbed into the cloud, turning it green, a tornado began to form, with green lines coursing through it.

"UH OH." Sonic said.

The tornado began to form a large light green light from the center, as the intensity of the brightness in the lines grew

"UH OOOOOOOH!" Sonic boomed.

Suddenly, the light receded, for a moment. And throughout that moment, Sonic wondered what those green specs of energy were, and what they were meant to do.

But then came the flash.

The flash blinded them for a split second. It did not leave their vision impaired for the moment after, or anything. Just a very bright flash. It seemed alien to Tails, but Sonic thought he had a slightest clue. As soon as the flash ended and he could see again, Sonic, curious as to what the monitor looked like, quickly glanced over at the monitor for a short moment. He saw a huge sea of green-level energy dispersing over the entire area.

Looking back to the window, the tornado had disappeared, and in its place thankfully was not a giant monster like he had feared. It was a ship. A large ship, with water-wheels and appeared to be an umbrella. On the side were several canons, and on the side of the ship were a heavy caliber machine gun and an odd looking ranged weapon with the tip burnt black.

The brotherly friends stared as it fell into the ocean, causing the water to splash high above the deck. With the abnormal energy leaving the area also left the natural energy. The winds died down and the rain stopped, but the clouds were still overhead, as grim as ever. Both of them were confused, but on different topics.

"How did that ship get there? It looks awfully familiar."

Sonic was opening the door to the structure. "Because you built it."

* * *

><p>Sonic and Tails shipped off on a small rowboat. The tides of Emerald Coast have calmed, but the sky was still cloudy.<p>

"The green lights didn't look familiar to you?" Sonic asked his friend.

Tails was feeling a bit shameful that he didn't remember them. "No, not at the time..."

"We flew right into one of them, almost got us killed, and you don't remember it?" Sonic went on, grabbing a grappling hook. They were given the grappling hook to board the ship by GUN. When they reached the ship's side, Tails stopped the boat. Sonic quickly flung the grappling hook around for a moment, savoring the adventurer feel he had while twirling it around, and tossed it up. He almost missed, but it landed on the ship, and took hold of the railing.

"Up we go," Sonic instructed as he began to climb the rope. "Can't keep them waiting."

As the two neared the top, Sonic couldn't resist a joke.

"Thank you for flying BoatAir, the first ever boat-based commercial airliner service since Skies of Arcadia!" Sonic said aloud, trying to put on a generic, friendly-sounding voice that such an airliner would use, holding back the laugh. "Please wait for your attendants to assist you!"

Tails laughed. This laugh devolved into a chuckle while Sonic climbed to the top and tossed his leg over the railing. "Alright, _Vyse_, that's enough."

Sonic looked around the boat. It was definitely the boat he thought it was; Ocean Tornado. _Tornado,_ Sonic thought as he finished confirming it was the ship he had in mind. _Tornadoes come from tornadoes._ Tails recognized the ship now. He didn't feel the need to say anything, however.

On the deck immediately in front of them were koalas, groaning and moaning across the floor, holding their heads and injured areas. None of it looked too serious. Mostly just unconsciousness and bruises. It was a different crew. They all had uniforms similar to Gardon's. No sign of Marine, but she would be in the Captain's Quarters.

"Tails, check Captain Quarters and below the deck." Sonic ordered. "I'll look around topside."

"Alright!" Tails accepted, turning around to go check. He stopped suddenly, as he turned around slowly and said "Or should I say "aye"?"

"Whatever you want." Sonic replied, starting to walking away, shaking his hand in a "shoo" fashion. "Just don't talk like a _scurveh sea dog_."

Sonic looked at the people on the deck, looking specifically for the person in the least pain. He saw a koala laying next to the stairway next to the entrance to the inner parts of the ship. Sonic walked over to the sailor.

"What'd ya bang?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing much, just a hip and an elbow." He said, plainly. He didn't talk like a sailor, although he did seem a bit grouchy at the moment.

Sonic offered his hand. "Well get up, and get everyone else on their feet. I've got important things to get to."

"Alright, gimmie a moment..." The koala groaned, arching his back. After a couple audible pops, and a satisfied "yeaaah," the sailor grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled himself up. After promptly dusting himself off, the sailor walked over to an unconscious one.

Sonic walked over to the bow. There, he saw the lavender cat from another dimension which he met only three or so before, Blaze. She seemed to just be removing the fear of the ship overturning from her head. Next to her was Gardon, her bodyguard. He was sitting on the deck, leaning against the railing, groaning, his sword stuck into the wood and most of his left side limp.

"Rise and shine, puddy tat." Sonic joked standing his dimensional counterpart.

"Sonic...?" Blaze said, opening one of her eyes to see if she was right. "Oh, it's nice to see you again but... great. I'm in your world. _Fantastic_."

"Yes, Blaze and us were just having a chase with an assassin, a prince of a rivaling kingdom, who managed to improvise his whole escape route from the heart of the capitol to the ports and made his way out on a slightly faster boat than this one." Gardon explained. "Almost had him too, but when he went into a storm, a tornado formed, and began to drag us into it. Before we knew it, a portal opened in the center, and we couldn't escape."

Sonic's eyebrows rose from the word 'assassin'. "Woah. At least you dodged the assassin, could have been terrible if he knew what he was doing."

"But we almost had him!" Blaze complained. "Just needed some more speed, is all..."

"Whatever, the deal is, you're in my world. Before you entered, me and Tails saw a green stuff fly into a tornado, making a green light." Sonic explained. "I remembered seeing it the same green lights when I entered your world the first time. Probably the Eggmen at work again." Sonic stuck out his hand. "So, time to get to work, I guess."

Blaze groaned. She knew he was right, and she hated how she was pulled out of one problem into another. She also didn't know why Sonic got right down to the business. Normally, she was the serious one, and he was wanting to just hang out. He also didn't much surprised that she was there. Weird, but whatever. With a sigh, she grabbed his hand, and hoisted herself onto her feet.

Sonic turned to see that Tails had come out of the ship by now, and was making his way over to the them.

"Hey, Blaze! It's been a while!" Tails greeted. "Is Marine on board? I didn't find her."

"No, she isn't. The kingdom had relieved the Ocean Tornado and the Deep Typhoon, on the grounds that it is crazy to just leave them in adventuring seven year old hands." Blaze explained. "She still has the Wave Cyclone and Aqua Blast, although we took the charge laser from the latter."

"Oh." Tails said, beginning to chuckle. "Well, I wouldn't blame you."

Blaze nodded. "Yes, yes. Taking this ship was a great choice, seeing as I was almost assassinated today."

Tails' face lit up. "Do you know who did it?"

The cat was slightly annoyed from repeating her day's endeavors. "Prince of a rival nation. Just walked in, tried his hand at my life, and improvised his way through the capitol and made it out on a _slightly_faster boat. It doesn't matter now, he didn't fall through the portal I did."

"Alright." Tails shrugged. "Should we be going, or...?"

"Yes, please." Blaze answered. "The more I stay on this boat, the more I'm reminded of how many times he threw garbage at me. And he has a way of throwing garbage-"

Gardon somehow grew a sense of humor and beat Sonic to cutting her off. "Now, I'd love to keep talking about trash, but we have eggs to crack."

* * *

><p>As the four paddled back onto shore, Sonic and Tails saw a familiar face, waiting for them. A black hedgehog, with red stripes running along bent quills. As they landed, Blaze was trying to match a description of one of the many people Sonic's met in the stories Sonic and Tails shared during their spare time on Southern Island, when Sonic called out to him.<p>

"Hey Shadow, what are you doing here?" The blue hedgehog asked.

"They have sixty four GUN operators here, and you think _I_wouldn't be one of them?" The black one responded.

"I'd make a joke about operators operating operations," Sonic rambled. "but seriously, why are you here? Didn't Tails here inform the officer here that I would be coming along? Isn't the major world-saving duo enough to handle things for them?"

"Apparently not. Especially now, since you and _her_tore through one of the GUN battleships back during the first dimensional conundrum." Shadow stated. He glanced at Blaze before speaking again. "So you're the catgirl Sonic talked about? Blaze?"

Blaze took a moment to answer. "Yes...?"

"Oh, don't worry, he talks about _everyone_." Shadow said. "He's his own news reporter."

"...Okay?" She replied. She didn't see why he needed to say that.

"Just saying."

Tails got back in the conversation. "Did GUN detect anything out there?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, the waters were too violent to send anything in it, we only moved the sensors up. Why?"

"I caught a little glimpse of what was causing it on the heat map." Sonic explained.

Tails grinned. "I had recorded what happened on it, maybe we can go back and review it, and try to get a precise answer as to what it was?"

"Good idea, Tails." Sonic said. He began to walk past Shadow. "Smell ya later, Shadow!"

As Sonic began to walk away, Blaze, Tails, and Gardon followed. While Gardon was passing, he stopped, looked at Shadow, shook the sheathed sword on his hip by the hilt, and left.

Shadow was left there to wonder.

"... "_Smell ya later_"? What am I, some cartoon rival?" Shadow complained to himself. "...And wouldn't _I_ be the protagonist if he said it? Whatever, I have important things to do, like..."

Shadow then realized his agency currently had no clue what had happened, and yet Sonic and Tails did. As a matter of fact, they had a recording of their evidence, and due to each others' rivalry, they probably won't share it. While those four were leading the way to find out what happened, the multi-billion dollar GUN organization was like a headless chicken. This just couldn't happen.

But Shadow had people. Most importantly, he led a very skilled group of agents, one of them being a spy. If anyone could get information for GUN, it would definitely be Rouge. She liked to be paid in gems, however. Very valuable gems. He figured she would steal her pay from them. It's convenient when she steals a Chaos Emerald, but with another set of emeralds she's never seen before, Rouge will probably take the new ones and then completely antagonize the GUN name to an entire other dimension, who may be equally or better equipped than them.

He activated his radio to get permission to execute his plan from his superiors, but as he was talking, he wondered what could go wrong.

"They have info on what happened, but they didn't invite us..." Shadow stated. "And I doubt they will."

A lot, he knew. He knew a lot could go wrong if he did this, and put much more into trouble.

"Hmm." Grunted the GUN Commander. "Well, do you have any ideas to counter that?"

Then there's a lot more chances to show that arrogant blue prick who is the better hog.

"Well, have this idea..."

* * *

><p>The trip was not completed without interference. News crews gathered around the exit of the beach as the storm ceased, and Sonic had to briefly explain the situation to the public.<p>

"Sonic! Sonic! Did you find out how the storm had been created along the shoreline?"

"Yes, and according to these readings, it says that that _you should BUG OFF!_"

News of the otherworldly princess' third appearance in this world spread quickly. The fact that she had parked a battleship with a full crew of koalas a dozen yards off the shore of a public beach in her entrance helped it get around.

Luckily, once they got a few blocks from the beach, they weren't held up by hordes of people in their way. The group of four -Sonic, Tails, Blaze, and Gardon, who insisted on coming along to guard her highness- quickly made it back to Tails' workshop at the edge of the city.

"Well, here we are." Tails said enthusiastically. "My workshop."

"Quite a collection of inventions you have..." Gardon complimented.

Tails chuckled. "Aw, shucks."

"Is it always like that here?" Blaze asked. "With all the people?"

Sonic answered quickly. "When something happens in town, people usually want to know what's going on as soon as possible. Don't worry, we won't be followed around by everyone and their mother for now."

"Really?" Blaze wondered.

"Well I hope not." He replied with a chuckle. "Civilians definitely won't. Rule number one of being a world-saving hero: You're a trouble magnet. I'm sure you know that by now. Anyway, let's look at that recording."

Tails stroked his chin. "You're not usually the one that wants to get down to business..."

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, I just want to know who we're dealing with, and what they're packing first. I can decide when the best time to lollygag would be later."

"Fair enough," Tails replied, turning on the computer. It to take a few moments to boot up.

While the computer was in the long process of turning on, there was a knock at the door. Sonic turned around and volunteered to answer it. "I got it, I got it." But as Sonic opened the door, he felt like he made the wrong choice.

"Sonic!" Cried the pink hedgehog on the other side. Sonic was ready to jump back from a nigh-inevitable glomp from his number one fan, Amy Rose. But strangely, it didn't come. Not _immediately_, anyway. "Me and Cream saw the news, and we were thinking, could me and Cream stay for a while?"

"Please?" Cream asked. Cream was Blaze's first friend here, and, for all Sonic knows, one of her first ever.

Sonic smiled. "Come on in. Don't forget, though, she's here for a reason, and it's not to just hang out. Something fishy is up."

"Thanks, Mister Sonic!" Cream thanked politely as she ran into the workshop. "Blaze!"

The cat blinked, and only got a glimpse of her before she wrapped her arms around her. "It's been a while, Cream!" Inspired by their hug, Amy made her move. Anticipating the inevitable, Sonic sidestepped away from Amy's attempt at a hug, letting out a light "Aha!" as the pink hedgehog swung her arms through air. "How have you been doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Blaze. I'm staying out of trouble while Sonic and Tails deal with Eggman." Cream explained.

"Every time." Sonic added, walking over to the two girls.

"Well, how about you?" Cream asked. "How are you doing?"

Blaze got a nervous look on her face. "Um... not that good. I'm here because there is something troublesome happening, somewhere, okay?"

"Oh. I hope it gets cleared up without too much fuss..."

"Don't we all?" Tails stated. "Anyway, the computer is running and the recording file is ready."

"Recording file?" Amy asked.

Sonic crossed his arms and began to explain. "We picked up some funky stuff on sensors we set up around the beach before the ship fell. We're looking to see if there's something we can point at and say "Yeah, that's Eggman", or if it's something else."

"Oh, alright. Well, at least you're prepared for it this time."

They began to huddle around the computer monitor.

* * *

><p>"How's it look?" The bat asked.<p>

"These binoculars aren't good enough," The black hedgehog groaned to his companion. "Their huge heads are getting in my way, and even then, this thing's not powerful enough to read how they're measuring the power."

Shadow and Rouge were sitting in a tree, looking through a window with binoculars, trying to piece together information they saw on the computer screen from above. Rouge, being part of the trio Shadow was in, was told asked to come along on his little reconnaissance mission. Down below, the third was overhearing technical problems.

"PERHAPS I CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE?" Omega inquired. His vision was designed to zoom, tune, focus, go into night vision, and use both white-hot and black-hot thermals if necessary.

Shadow found the fact that the branch wasn't the most sturdy a bit unsettling. "Not to insult, but you're not particularly a stealth robot. And this branch is already bending, I don't think it could stand a seven-hundred pound killing machine."

"TOUCHE." Omega responded.

"Hey, how about I get a look at it up close?" Rouge asked.

Shadow rose an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Rouge explained her intentions. "Blaze hasn't had a hostile impression on me yet. Plus, me and her went to Sonic's birthday party. She should trust me, and I probably won't even have to lie to them, so long as she doesn't punch me right out."

"Yes, but I'm sure he's told her about you, what with your fondness of emeralds and gems of all kinds. This Blaze girl has her own set of them, you know. Sol Emeralds?"

"And she has a gem on her forehead."

In a silence, Shadow took a moment to look through the binoculars at Blaze, locating at the red spot on her forehead.

"What?" Rouge asked.

Shadow chuckled. "I guess "blind as a bat" doesn't apply to you."

"Hah," Rouge laughed dryly. "Anyway, Sonic has taught her to open up a bit more, and try to make friends with people, if his word is something to trust. If that doesn't work, I'll draw them all out so you two can move in."

Shadow thought it over for a moment. "Oh, sure. It's better than looking at colored spots all day."

Rouge began to flap her wings to float down to the ground. "You two stay here, wait for me to come back out before trying anything."

"Alright," Shadow nodded.

"AFFIRMATIVE." Omega complied.

Shadow opened his mouth one last time. "And about that birthday party-"

"Knuckles specifically told me _not to bring you_. He knew a fight would break out."

As the hedgehog grumbled, the gentle gem-rogue landed gently on the ground, and walked around the corner of the workshop. Shadow returned to observing through binoculars.

* * *

><p>"You see that massive hot-spot right here?" Sonic said, pointing to the same hotspot he was looking at earlier. "It looks like it was some dispenser for it."<p>

Tails shook his head. "Yeah, I should have checked to see if they moved the sensors up. I should make some notification that the scanning area's dimensions changed..."

_Knock knock knock_

"More visitors?" Sonic asked. "Tails, why didn't you tell me we were having a party?"

"I'll get it this time," Blaze said, standing up and making her way to the door. "You two know more about how that works than I do."

"I only have the slightest idea..." Sonic admitted in a mumbling voice. He couldn't recognize the energy measurement Tails was measuring this energy in. He could tell it wasn't radioactive, thankfully.

Blaze opened the door, and felt the same thing Sonic had felt. Like it was a bad choice.

"Oh, hey." Said the well-endowed bat on the other side of the door. "I heard the commotion. You must be Blaze?"

Blaze remembered her from Sonic's birthday party a while back. They didn't talk, but Blaze certainly did not want to talk to her. Sonic never went into detail on her in his stories while he was staying on Southern Island back in her dimension, but taking a good look at her, she's not the kind of woman a man would remember. "... Yes."

"Well, we've met before, haven't we? I'm Rouge. I was sent here by GUN," Rouge started to look over Blaze's shoulder toward the group huddling around the computer. "... to ask if we could get a look at what your friends had picked up at Emerald Coast today."

Sonic and Tails exchanged looks. They knew her well, but if she tried anything, she certainly wouldn't get away with it. Not against five or six people. After a moment, Sonic nodded. "Sure, just don't touch anything."

"Yes, there are dangerous things here, Ms. Rouge." Cream told her.

"Yeah, dangerous as in knock your head clean off." Sonic jokingly added, walking over to the table and spinning what at first appeared to be and industrial fan, but was actually a surplus propeller for an airplane, modified so it can be activated by hand in the back.

"_Sonic!_" Amy shouted, concerned, as Cream was a few feet away from him.

"Okay, sorry." Sonic apologized.

Rouge looked back at the cat. Blaze was looking at her with a paranoid glare, but with a "hmph", she turned away and walked back into the shop.

"Not so sunshine and rainbows, huh?" Rouge joked. "Oh, I know a guy you'd _love_ to meet."

"Shadow, right? Not interested." Blaze answered plainly, swatting the thought out of the air like an airplane hitting a bird.

Rouge rose her eyebrows. "Oh, so do you just not swing that-"

"_NOT INTERESTED_." She growled again, smacking the topic out of the sky like King Kong hitting the aforementioned airplane. Rouge noticed wispy steam escape through the gaps of her teeth. "You came for information, get it."

"Calm down, Blaze." Sonic told Blaze. "Yeesh."

"Fine, fine..." Rouge sighed. She probably blew any chance of respect from Blaze. Rouge usually had good, knowledgeable documents to study their personalities before trying to use her charisma to get the better of someone, but due to her stoic personality, and no GUN personnel having encountered her during her only adventure in this realm, she had to wing it with what Sonic said about her. Winging it usually worked, but this Blaze girl seemed to be hateful and paranoid toward her, despite Sonic saying she's "opened up a bit". Rouge couldn't blame her, really. And, looking at the current objective of getting everyone out of the workshop so Shadow and Omega could enter, it was probably good if Blaze and her got into a fight. But make it natural, not like she wants them all to leave.

Rouge made her way over to the computer and looked over the shoulder of the two tailed fox sitting in the chair. She couldn't make anything out on the spot other than _that's a lot of energy_.

"What is this measured in? What kind of energy, how much...?"

"That's the thing that I find weird. The sensors we had at the beach could pick up several types of energy, including Chaos energy. This here is the Chaos energy sensor feed. But, we have complete sets of both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds."

Rouge was not into technology stuff, and she hardly cared about the energetic properties of the Chaos Emeralds. She loved the visual properties, though. Their gleam was delightful, and much brighter than other emeralds that size, shape, and color. She could always tell a genuine from a fake. Perhaps the energy does have something to do with her love for them. As a result of her uncaring of the topic at hand, her gaze was wandering around the shop. Sonic was right; some of the stuff could take someone's head clean off. It hardly crossed her mind that this workshop belonged to an eight year old boy. It was then she spotted a bag. A black silk bag, that was slightly open, and through the gap she saw a glimmer. Mesmerized, Rouge was being drawn toward it.

"Hmm... There isn't any other gems I would know that have similar properties as the Sol Emeralds, other than the Royal Emerald, but that's been locked in a vault located in the castle for years now." Blaze pondered.

"Royal Emerald? You never told us about that." Sonic stated.

"I haven't? Oh." Blaze began to explain. "It's said to have powers, due to its size, but it's ceremonial, so it shouldn't..."

She noticed the bat girl looking with awe into the bag of Sol Emeralds.

"_HEY!_" Blaze shouted sharply, pushing her way over to her, snatched the bag from her hands, and glanced in it to check if she stole a few. "What do you _think you're doing!_"

Rouge laughed nervously. She honestly did get carried away. "Ahaha, sorry, I got... tempted. What are those? They look fabulous."

Rouge noticed Blaze was becoming more and more passive-aggressive each time she finished a sentence. "Sol Emeralds. Precious artifacts. More valuable than your life."

"Woah, hey..." Sonic said, trying to ease the two.

"Blaze..." Cream whimpered.

Blaze looked back at Cream, and then back at Rouge. With a snort of a bull, Blaze turned away from Rouge.

"Rouge, leave." Sonic ordered. "Now."

"But I haven't gotten any pictures ye-"

"Just leave!" Sonic shouted. "You and GUN are in our business. You should know hanging with the heroes only gets you in trouble. Get out. And tell GUN the only thing they're good for is diabolical trucks that destroy cities."

Feeling slightly insulted, Rouge turned away, returning the unfriendly glare to Blaze as she made to the door.

"Cream, I'm sorry," Blaze began. "I knew she was trouble when I opened the door..." Slightly worried, Blaze opened the bag, and began to examine her emeralds. "... Three, four, five..."

A bell rung as Rouge opened the door and hit the visitor bell above the doorway and made her way out.

"..._six_..." Blaze's eyes widened as she opened the bag wider. "... OH THAT THIEVING LITTLE..."

Without another word, Blaze tossed the Sol Emeralds to Gardon, and charged out the door, swinging it open, and charged through. "GIVE ME MY EMERALD BACK YOU STEALING _TRAMP!_"

Gardon handed the bag of emeralds to Sonic. Sonic was the fastest thing alive, so if anyone had a chance to catching up with a clever spy as Rouge, it'd be him, and he wanted to keep it like that and not having to haul around six gems. He looked around impatiently for a place to put them, and tossed them beside the computer as Gardon turned his back on him. With that, Gardon tore his sword from the sheath, and let out a warcry.

"FOR HER MAJESTY!" He shouted as he slammed open the door, and charged out.

"She's not _that_ majestic..." Sonic chuckled quietly enough so Gardon wouldn't hear, holding the door open for Tails, Amy, and Cream. Once the last one was out, Sonic shut the door, and bolted after Rouge. Tails was to follow, with Amy and Cream trying to catch up.

* * *

><p>And so it begins.<p> 


	3. Chapter 2: Oh Boy, Here We Go

I'm sorry I'm taking so long. Writing this is taking longer than expected. I usually stay a chapter ahead, but this time I'm making an exception because I'm taking so long without saying anything.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two: Oh Boy, Here We Go<strong>

"They're gone." Shadow whispered.

"THEN LET US COMMENCE THE RETRIEVAL OF THE INFORMATION." Omega boomed a response.

"Quiet, quiet!" Shadow ordered in a hushed voice. "There might be someone in there, still... Just turn off your mouth!"

Shadow looked around the corner, and looked toward the woods Rouge chose to run into. He could see Amy and Cream, only slightly, who in a moment will bound over a fallen tree in the woods. Other than that, no one else seemed around. No civilians, no other GUN agents, no colorful furry superheroes... no one.

Shadow smiled. "Alright, clear on the outside, not a soul in sight. Let's go in."

Shadow turned the corner, Omega following as he got to the door. He leaned against the door, and began to gently twist the knob. Unlocked. Good. He readjusted himself, and twisted the knob fully to open the door. Shadow managed to keep leaning on the door as it swung open and hit the wall. Inside the workshop was as devoid of life as the landscape around it. He chuckled a bit as he walked in the shop, and began examining the bits of contraptions and the things they belonged to that were scattered around the shop. "Alright, completely clear. They even left the computer on in a hurry, I can see."

"I SHALL COPY THE FILE AND SEND IT TO GUN HQ." Omega blurted as he barely managed to fit in the doorway. Leaving the door open, he began to make his way over to the computer as Shadow observed the contraptions. He couldn't tell what half of them were at first. But, with further inspection, he could see what they were meant to do. He took a moment to admire the crazy looking machinery that the eight year old had built. Shadow didn't really pay attention to the genius of the fox, but this trip into his lab gave him a great look at just how smart he was.

Shadow was about to give up looking around, and observe the recording himself, to see if he could make sense of it, when he saw a black bag. He saw that Rouge had looked into it, with interest. With some curiosity, put a finger on the mouth of the bag, and looked inside.

Gems. Large, precious looking gems. He recognized them as the Sol Emeralds, from a very vague description Sonic gave during his newspaper report of the first dimensional conundrum. "They're counterparts of the Chaos Emeralds," quote Sonic from the paper. "They're rectangular, and, although not proven, probably have similar abilities, powers, and weaknesses, as they were drained of color, much like how the Chaos Emeralds were during the _Chaos Incident_. There are also seven in the set." To Shadow's not-so-shocking surprise, there were six. Shadow didn't even notice Rouge take one from the bag, even though his eyes were trained on her._ How does she do that? _The black hedgehog wondered._ What is she, a wizard? _

He felt satisfaction with his comrade being able to sneak out a highly sacred item from its guardian within ten feet, but at the same time, he felt disappointment. They were here for information, not Sol Emeralds. Blaze needs those, anyhow. Looking around, he felt that the emeralds were in a very obvious spot, if Rouge were to return to the workshop after having slipped behind her pursuers. Shadow felt he needed to keep them away from Rouge, as she would take them all if she was left alone with them, regardless of their purpose. And the only person that can use the emeralds not having them would only make the situation worse.

He had to hide it from Rouge.

So, he grabbed the bag and turned around, looking for a spot she wouldn't see while walking in. He eyed a drawer, and briefly wondered if Rouge could feel the power of the emeralds. Or if he could. After confirming he didn't feel anything above a slightly... _calming_ aura, and that this Blaze girl probably felt more, he opened the drawer and stuffed the bag in, making sure none of the fine fabric was sticking out of the cracks as he shut it.

Feeling somewhat better about himself, he took a breath in and looked across the table.

There was a floating steel chair roughly three feet away from him.

_**WHANG**_

* * *

><p>Sonic raced through the forest, trying to find the bat and the cat. The path was simple: follow the scorch marks and the faint sound of insults and curse words in the distance. Sonic decided if he could <em>hear<em> what words were being shouted, then he had to be really hot on their trail. While running along the trail, he noticed smoldering bits of machinery on the ground.

"Really?" Sonic said to himself as he passed the remains of the military droids. "Did G.U.N. really just Rouge robots for backup? _Really?_"

As Sonic ran up a tree, following the burnt black trail Blaze left on it, untouched G.U.N. robot looked at Sonic.

"TARGET SPOTTED, COMMENCING FI-"

Before it could finish, Sonic went straight through the robot, punching a nice hole in it, and continued.

"Does G.U.N. have a plan for the Sol Emeralds, or is this just Rouge being Rouge?" Sonic wondered aloud to himself as he raced on, plowing through more robots. "And why do the robots have to say everything they're about to do? They're worse than Eggman when it comes to that, and _that's_ saying something!"

As Sonic went on, he felt something against his ankle. He hardly felt it as it broke against his leg, but enough to have a clue what it was.

Down the path, down fell a dark black ball. An old fashioned bomb, he figured as he got closer. It had to be at least fifty feet ahead of him, but at the speed Sonic was moving, it may as well have been two feet. He was running too fast to slow down enough, so he had to run faster. As he got to it, he jumped and rolled into a ball as it exploded. There was a small shockwave that made him stumble a little as he landed, but nothing that could put him on the ground. He was fine, and annoyed that Rouge was still Rouge.

Sonic slowed down to a halt, and looked back, wondering if he had dodged other traps that Tails or Amy wouldn't notice either. He was bouncing up and down on his feet in place, playing tennis with the thought. Sonic groaned, thinking he had slowed down enough. He figured Tails could protect Amy and Cream as Sonic continued to follow the soot trail.

* * *

><p>Tails felt the wire prop up his foot as he stepped on it. Tails began to fly, but drag in his speed. He quickly looking over the environment to see which one of Rouge's traps he had set off. He'd be able to dodge it.<p>

But then Amy almost ran past him.

"Stop stop STOP!" Tails shouted as he barely managed to grab her arm. Slow to react, Cream ran past him as well, and the fox had to send his other hand out to grab her arm. Tails ground his feet into the ground whilst trying to propel himself backwards while the two unsuspecting sprinting girls watched as spikes emerged from the brush ahead of them, but luckily held back by Tails. After a second of skidding and intense pulling, Amy and Cream managed to stop, and Tails used his dying momentum to walk in front of the two, and turn around.

"Yeesh!" Tails breathed in relief. For girls, that put a lot of strain on his arms.

"Woah, we almost ran into that." Amy pointed out, slightly berating herself for almost simply charging into the trap. "I thought Rouge specialized in bombs? She has spike traps too?"

"Thanks Tails!" Cream cheered, already going ahead. "Mister Sonic's not waiting, Amy!" She called back as she went ahead.

"Yeah, thanks!" Amy thanked, before going to catch up with Cream. "What are you, crazy? Sonic never waits!"

Tails rubbed his arms, thinking for a moment. He felt weak, for a moment, almost having failed at holding back two girls. But only for a moment. He had a job to do. So he ran after the two girls, soon taking the lead.

* * *

><p>As Sonic got closer and closer to the treeline, he began to move quietly and observe what was going on from the forest.<p>

Blaze was finishing up a batch of G.U.N. robots before Rouge began to talk. "Ooh, not bad."

"Shut your mouth and give me my Sol Emerald!" Blaze shouted. "I've got better things to do than argue with a dime a dozen thief, so return it!"

Rouge laughed. "You've got no idea what you're messing with, girl."

"And you have no idea what _you're_ messing with! Give it back!" As Blaze talked, sparks of fire flew from between her teeth.

Noticing this, Rouge covered her smile. "Hmph, for a princess you sure are feisty."

With that, Blaze ran at Rouge, her feet slowly being engulfed in flame. Rouge, accepting the challenge, ran toward her, and as she saw Blaze start up a kick, she jumped and flew over the burning cat sending a spiraling kick to where the bat once was. While the cat was slowing down, Rouge began to fly after Blaze, ready with a kick of her own.

As Blaze regained her footing, she saw the incoming attack. She jumped back, narrowly dodging the powerful kick, and sending another flaming kick toward the bat. This attack connected just as Rouge realized it was coming. Rouge took the kick to the shoulder and jumped back five feet, flapping her wings to make sure she landed on her feet.

She touched the spot where it connected, to find that it stung to put her hand directly on her skin there. It was scorched. A nasty side effect. The smile disappearing from her face as she winced from the burn, Rouge glared at her enemy. "Not bad, missy..."

Blaze slowly strafed around Rouge, her expression unchanging.

"Not bad at all..." Rouge went on, shaking off the pain in the arm that was hit. She began bouncing around, ready to get back on the offensive. "But you're gonna have to do better than little burns and scorches like _that_."

Before Blaze could respond, Rouge ran right at her. She was halfway ready to send a kick straight at the bat, when Rouge slid along the ground. Annoyed by the change of movement, Blaze bent her leg, ready to stomp on Rouge with her high heels if she got close.

But on the ground, Rouge twisted over and pushed herself into the air. This sudden change caught the cat off guard, and the powerful kick got her in the jaw. Blaze stumbled back, almost falling to the ground. Rouge kicked much harder than she did.

As she was addressing the hit, Blaze looked behind her and sent her foot toward the ground behind her, sending fire across the ground. Rouge was about to follow up with another kick, but the flames forced her to jump back to avoid more burns. Now that she had her time to talk, Blaze responded to Rouge's suggestion.

"_Is that a suggestion?_" She grumbled, moving her jaw around and turning to face Rouge again.

The two girls strafed around each other, impatient for the other to attack. Blaze began closing in, and Rouge backed up in response. Thinking she has the mental upper hand, Blaze ran up to Rouge. Expecting a kick, Rouge braced to block, hoping only to receive a minor burn, however expecting to be knocked back.

Just before the supposedly inevitable kick, though, Blaze stopped in her tracks, and sent her hand forward. From it, fire flew out and covered Rouge's torso. Rouge, surprised, instinctively jumped back and flapped her wings, sending the fire away from her and at Blaze. Rouge was hoping that Blaze herself wasn't fireproof.

Blaze was fireproof, but she was blinded by fire covering her face. It dissipated quickly, when her face was unveiled, she was smiling, watching Rouge shake her singed face and arms to put out fires that weren't there. When Rouge was done, she glared at the pyrokinetic cat, what little playfulness she had gone.

_She doesn't fight fair._ Rouge noted to herself as she looked at the cat with her little Cheshire smile. She hatched an idea. _Well, neither do I._

From behind her, Rouge readied something. She'll never see this-

"A BOMB!" Sonic intentionally blurted out the painfully obvious from the sidelines, attracting the attention of both the fighters and Tails, Amy, Cream and Gardon, who just got within earshot.

Instead of what she originally planned, Rouge's agitation took over, and she threw the bomb over her head at Sonic.

Sonic's joyful false-concern turned into anger hidden behind a plain face as the bomb flew toward him. "Oh. Okay." Sonic said plainly as the bomb was en route.

While the bomb was heading toward Sonic, Rouge turned and got a stern kick into Blaze's gut. Blaze wasn't knocked back by this kick, so she sent a hand to Rouge's side, using the same burning technique as before. In pain, Rouge hopped back. Blaze was jogging backward, looking at Sonic with her mouth hanging loose with a smile. This rose the question of what caught Blaze's attention. Rouge looked over to Sonic, and saw Sonic. With the bomb held with both hands above his head.

His mood ruined, Sonic said "I see how it is."

Sonic threw the bomb at Rouge, running out from the treeline as he threw it and into the fight. Because the bomb was returned with such delay, the bomb exploded right in front of Rouge, causing her to stagger backward. She hadn't the time to collect herself before Sonic came spinning into her, blasting her back and sending her skidding to the other side of the clearing.

"You were watching the whole time?" Blaze asked quickly.

"Yup!" Sonic answered, standing up from ball form.

Blaze was a bit frustrated. "Why didn't you join in earlier? I thought you didn't like it when people do that."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, you're right. But remember when I fought the Time Eater? With all due respect, all _you_ did was just sit on the sidelines and say _'THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT_' along with the rest of them."

Blaze looked down at the ground, chuckling. "Point taken."

Tails, Amy, Cream and Gardon had reached the treeline at that point. Gardon, who was not particularly fast, was tired from trying to keep up. On a normal basis, Gardon would have ran at Rouge with his sword drawn, screaming something along the lines of "For the Queen and Country", but he was breathing so heavily he couldn't talk. Besides, it looked like the bat woman was handled by now. Amy, Tails, and Cream being the faster ones, saw Sonic's stunt with the bomb.

"Woo! Nice one Sonic!" Amy cheered, with all the enthusiasm as expected.

Tails decided to point something out no one quite picked up. "Sonic, Blaze, she dropped the Sol Emerald!"

Rouge had noticed this at the same time Tails did. On the ground and covered in soot, the bat scrambled for the gem, but Blaze was faster, and got to the purple Sol Emerald first. As she was picking it up, She spun around on one of her feet and kicked Rouge in the face as she almost got to the Sol Emerald. Rouge fell onto her back, and began to back away on the ground. Amy and Tails emerged from the treeline, Cream staying back for her protection, and Gardon only just paying attention to the situation while trying to regain lost energy.

Rouge growled, getting up off the ground and into a crouch. "This could have been a fair fight, if Sonic hadn't gotten involved." Rouge said, reaching for something behind her back and standing. "But now..."

The bat smiled as she pulled out a walkie-talkie, and pressed the "talk" button. "Ooh Shadow!" She said to the other line, expecting the inevitable heavily sarcastic reply.

* * *

><p>Shadow was in the process of tearing the workshop apart looking for the fine silk bag of Sol Emeralds.<p>

"_Ooh Shadow!_" His radio communicator blurted out obnoxiously in Rouge's voice.

He let Rouge's voice be the ending point of his search for the Sol Emeralds, and the point where he accepts that the attacker was took them, Shadow sighed. He hoped that he could actually get on the good side of Blaze, at least.

"_...Shadow?_"

Shadow answered the call.

"Oh thanks _a lot_, Rouge. Thanks to your _escapade_ with the Sol Emeralds... You will NEVER. GUESS. _WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED._"

* * *

><p>"<em>And I hope you're happy.<em>" Shadow said disappointed as Rouge lowered the radio, which was loud enough for her enemies to hear, with a shocked look on her face.

Blaze twitched. Then, like a bull, she snorted and ground her heels into the ground, complete with the steam coming from her nose. But just before she could charge at Rouge with fiery fury, Sonic grabbed her shoulder.

"Blaze, let her go. We've got better things to be doing." Sonic explained, trying to calm her down. "Better things than arguing with dime a dozen thieves."

Understanding him, Blaze's raised shoulders slumped down, and she turned and began jogging back, pocketing the Sol Emerald. Sonic, Tails, and Amy followed. Amy turned and glared at Rouge as she left.

Gardon had finally caught his breath as Blaze passed him. As she went by, a grim look washed across his face. "Already?" He complained, using his sword to push himself away from the tree, and behind the five others.

Rouge thought about trying to get to her comrades before her enemies did, but they probably don't want to be near her. She wondered what to do, for a moment, before coming to a saddening conclusion. In defeat, she walked off, back in the direction of Station Square, planning on resigning for the day, as it wasn't turning out to be her day to be involved in one of Sonic's adventures.

* * *

><p>The group of six had made it back to the workshop. Cream was trying to calm Blaze's now highly active passive aggressive state. Sonic made it to the door first, rolling his eyes, speaking to himself, "Oh boy, here we go." Armed with a disappointed look on his face, Sonic opened the door, and stared at the current occupants of the shop.<p>

Shadow's conversation with Omega was abruptly ended by the sound of the door opening. The black hedgehog turned to see the six walk in, all staring coldly at him.

"So Shadow, what were you doing in here?" Sonic interrogated.

Shadow pinched his brow. "I was sent here by G.U.N. with Rouge and Omega here, to try to keep up to pace with you, if not surpass you, in the terms of situational awareness. So me and Rouge decided to, literally..." Shadow pointed toward the tree, placed within perfect viewing point of the computer. "... look over your shoulder."

"I should cut that down," Tails noted to himself during Shadow's pause.

"When we couldn't find out exactly what we were dealing with from up there, I thought one of us had to go in and try to get a closer look at it. Since you _seemed_ to be speaking ill of me to the other dimension's royalty, and since Rouge was invited to your party and is a better diplomat than I am, I thought it would be a better idea to send her in." Shadow continued. "I forgot about how easily she could get distracted by jewels. Especially the Chaos Emeralds. I didn't even take the Sol Emeralds into account. So after you all left, leaving the Sol Emeralds in plain sight, I tried hiding them from Rouge, in case she came back. Hardly a few seconds after I hid the Sol Emeralds, I looked up, and got knocked out with a metal chair. Omega was distracted with extracting the data and sending it to G.U.N. HQ, and while I was knocked out, the attacker must have found his sleep-mode switch, which is well hidden. Probably left after grabbing the Sol Emeralds."

Sonic wasn't as annoyed as he thought he would be. "At least you didn't take the rest for yourself."

Shadow scowled. "Because G.U.N. has better things to do than ruin interdimensional relations in order to fit the paycheck of one operative." Shadow shook his head, and looked toward Blaze. "I apologize for my partner's stroke of greed. She usually contains herself." Shadow stuck out his hand, hoping to get a truce, at least.

Blaze just stood there, ignoring it. "I'll accept the apology when we have my Emeralds back."

Shadow took his hand back, nodding. "Alright."

Sonic saw some opportunity. "Hey, come with us." He ordered. "You're helping fix the problem your annoying bat made."

Shadow looked around, thinking about it. Seeing no greater alternatives, he turned back. "Alright."

"At this rate, things can only get worse..." Tails examined.

Sonic repeated himself. "Oh boy, _here we go_."

* * *

><p>I might have to put this on an update hiatus. I know, I know, that's been the death of thousands of stories, but writer's block is a cruel mistress. And like FUCK I'm going to stop writing this. This is just the beginning of something great, a prequel to pure grace. I've got so much stuff planned out, so much skeleton to put flesh on... it's just that there's only so much flesh on it at the moment. I might be gone for a couple months while I write ahead, because in retrospect I uploaded this story WAY too early and it's killing me.<p> 


	4. Chapter 3: It Was a Wednesday

Well, took a while, but now I'm a bit ahead of the game. Been a bit rough, juggling some projects but I'm workin' it out. Maybe it would take shorter if I didn't make these huge chapters. But then it wouldn't be awesome. So here's a _HUGE_ chapter.**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three: It Was a Wednesday<strong>

Rouge walked through the woods, feeling aggravated about her recent loss. She was planning on giving up for the day, and getting out of the situation before she gets involved with Sonic's adventure against Eggman. Staying around him is bound to get you trouble. Besides that, it was getting dark.

"Oh, that blue runt." She moaned to herself. "I was hoping for a fair fight with that cat, but no, Sonic had to ruin it. It was just getting interesting, too, when she tried to _brand me with her foot_. " She growled those last words, before laughing and saying jokingly to herself, "kinky."

But just before she reached the edge of the treeline, she heard footsteps. Distant footsteps, trying to be sneaky, but marked with some familiar, clacking sound. She knelt down, and peeked out from behind a tree, to see an anthromorph of some sort, donning clothes almost entirely in black and navy blue, slipping away. A wrapping covered his face. Although it was to dark to see, she heard the clinking come from something he was carrying close to his chest with his very thick gloves, as if he were wearing two sets.

Shady looking guy sneaking away with something. Oh-so-familiar sound of tapping gems. She was about to put two and two together herself and figure this person was the Sol Emerald thief, when the masked man did it for her; the gray Sol Emerald slipped from the opening of the bag he was carrying.

At this point, she knew that whoever the shrouded person was, he was up to nothing good. Well, neither was Rouge, but regardless. It was one thing to slip away with one emerald for your fancy, but when they beat down two agents, one of them being able to throw ethereal spears at people and the other a walking arsenal, and take the whole bag, that's when she thinks they are planning something malicious with them.

Smirking, Rouge ran from out of the treeline soundlessly as the thief cursed to himself, and made his way back over to the emerald.

The shady man knelt on the ground in front of the emerald, slightly tired. He wasn't one of those guys who could run beyond a hundred miles an hour. He has aces up his sleeve, but running just isn't his thing. He put his hand on the gray Sol Emerald, feeling its power. He noticed that the gem had a bright glow, making it stand out in the grass. He looked to his right, toward the suburbia just outside the city. He hadn't gotten to the area where people actually go, so he should be in the clear. To his left, he looked just in time to receive a boot to the face.

The crook screamed in surprise as Rouge kicked him. Luckily for her, he hadn't retrieved the Sol Emerald yet, so while he was rolling back onto his feet, Rouge picked up the fascinating gray Sol Emerald.

"You need to work on your sneaking, boy." Rouge told the man in black. "I heard your footsteps from the forest," Rouge lifted the Sol Emerald to bask at it. "And you weren't holding _these_ to gently. I could hear these poor things smack against each other in that bag. Since you don't know how to treat an Emerald like that with respect, give them to me."

The thief growled. "No way! I'm not giving these up! You don't know what will happen if I do!"

"Hmm..." Rouge recognized the voice, but couldn't place her finger on it. "You sound familiar..."

"Uh, what?" He asked, twisting the bag's opening, and left it in one hand. "I never met you!"

The bat was not all too familiar with the voice herself, actually. She just had a hunch. But after you've met Sonic, sometimes a hunch is all you need to be right about something, in the end. "Whatever. If you won't hand them to me, I guess I'll have to take them from you!"

"Oh yeah? Just try!" The cocky teen taunted, getting into a battle stance that Rouge instantly sighted two flaws in. Rouge rose her eyebrow. How did this fool get past Shadow and Omega? Rouge shook herself the thought away. Underestimating will only get her so far.

Rouge sent a quick roundhouse kick at the boy's head. He knelt down to avoid it, and jumped over her following swipe. He seemed to hover in the air as he kicked the Sol Emerald from Rouge's hand. The boy then tried to make his way over to it, but Rouge grabbed him by the leg. He struggled, but in a moment Rouge tugged on his leg so that her leg could connect to his chin just the way she wanted. She then made her way over to the Sol Emerald. Rouge picked it up, and tossed it up a lightly, to play with it.

However, the Sol Emerald went very high. Unreasonably high above her head. Rouge's eyes followed it skyward, still in confusion. Then, came the man in black, jumping onto her shoulder and kicking her in the face, and catching the Sol Emerald in his bag as Rouge fell onto the ground under his feet. He then began to run away.

Rouge wouldn't let some snob like this get away. She twirled to her feet, and ran after the thief. He wasn't fast, Rouge noted. She wasn't fast, herself, and yet she was catching up to him. As he looked back at her, Rouge pulled out a bomb, and hurled it over his head with one hand. The time it spent in the air was long enough for the fuse to shorten to the point where it couldn't be returned. To the rogue bat's pleasure, the crook turned to look at her again when the bomb fell in front of him and blasted him back, into a well timed airborne kick to the head.

As Rouge stood where the bomb went off, she looked around briefly for the bag. Surprisingly, she noticed that it was still in the thief's hands. She walked over to her tired foe, who was breathing heavily. She rose her foot, and just before she could pin the thief down by his arm, he managed to roll to his side onto his feet. Underestimating or not, Rouge suspected he was too tired to continue to be a real threat after her bomb trick. Almost everyone is.

And then the thief ran to shove her.

There was no real technique; it was a simple, exasperated shove, that seemed to have hardly any driving force behind it. It would hardly push a table. However, as Rouge was shoved, he shouted, and she felt as if she was picked up and tossed, and tossed she was. She was sent a dozen feet away and slid along the ground on her back, from what to her seemed like a silly push. It had no force, no specialty, no technique, and yet she was blown away. She wondered how as she looked at her foe. He was now activating something on his wrist.

Then, there was a bright green flash. Rouge had to cover her eyes momentarily. When she felt it was safe to look, she moved her arm, and saw a green spiral in the area the thief was.

Curious, the bat girl rose to her feet, not taking her eyes from the anomaly. Perhaps it was a portal, she decided. She was cautious of its suspicious neon green glow, while although alluring, seemed dangerous. Yet, before she knew it, she was inches from it, putting her hand to it. Rouge snatched her hand away from it, and stepped back.

"I'm... not too fond of going through that..." She mumbled to herself. After a few more seconds of gazing into its swirls, she smiled. "But I know someone who would..."

Rouge walked around the portal, watching it as if it were a hound told to stay, and ran toward the road. But coming down the road from just around the corner was none other than the blue hedgehog and company she was looking for, and they were not too happy with the sight of her.

"Rouge!" Sonic shouted at the bat, expecting another fight.

"Hold on, Speedy, let me explain, alright?" Rouge pleaded. She sighed, and looked over at Blaze. "I saw your perpetrator with the Sol Emeralds. I got into a fight with them, but, then he..."

Rouge gestured to the portal. Eyes widened amongst the group.

"... _Did that_, and now he's gone. I didn't want to go in there, at least not alone. So I was going to come up the road to see if you would check it out."

"That shade of green..." Tails began, trying to recall where it came from.

The rest were mostly baffled. And then, something ticked in Blaze's head. Her passive, expressionless face jolted in surprise. She quickly pushed her way through the party and made her way toward the portal. Seeing Blaze diving into the unknown made Sonic feel a bit left out.

"Hey, wait up!" Sonic shouted, running after her.

Tails followed, concerned about those two not speculating before running into portals to who-knows-where. "What are you two doing!"

The string continued. Everyone ran in crying and chasing after someone else, causing the entire group to run headlong into the portal. From Blaze, to Sonic, to Tails, to Amy, to Gardon, to Cream, to Shadow, and Omega, leaving Rouge standing there, stifling her laughter as she calmly walked in.

* * *

><p>Blaze was sent out the other side of the portal, and barely stopped in time to avoid crashing into a wall. She began walking around, and examined the room. She was in a concrete room. It seemed to be a large maintenance room of some sort. Tool boxes, shelves, and tins littered the room. The door was open. She was jogging toward it when Sonic ran out of the portal.<p>

She ran to her left down what looked like a large storm drain, Sonic made note of. As he got to the doorway, Tails came out. As he did, Sonic turned to him from the doorway.

"Let's go left!" Sonic ordered, before jogging off. He turned his head to shout over his shoulder as he was leaving. "We don't know where we are, so try not split up!"

Tails stood behind, directing the rest where to go. A few seconds after taking a turn, Sonic heard a loud explosion come from behind him as Omega failed to fit through the doorway. Assuming that Omega was truly on their side and the situation could be handled by his friends if they weren't, he didn't stop following Blaze as she turned into another open doorway. Sonic slid sideways in front of the doorway, to see Blaze was climbing a ladder. Sonic jogged up behind her, and began climbing.

"What was the deal, not saying a word?" Sonic asked.

"The assassin led me and Gardon into a trap, which flashed that shade of green, and we dropped into your world. That portal was green." Blaze began to answer, stopping only to lift the slightly opened grate away. "I thought there was a connection, and there was. It was a portal back to my dimension! He can swap dimensions _at will!_ If we aren't on his tail, we simply can't track him!" Blaze pulled herself out of the hole, sat on the hole, and swung her feet onto the street. "For all we know, he could have unfinished business here."

Sonic was reaching the top of the ladder, but wasn't entirely caught up to speed. "And that would be...?" As he reached the street, he looked up in amazement.

Above the rooftops, he saw a colossal building. Towers that reminded him of the Gaudi Cathedral from Barcelona pierced the now night sky lit with spotlights, stained-glass windows gleaming with colors, and the sheer size of it was staggering for the fact that it was a building, and not a natural wonder. This ginormous construction was The Gleaming Castle, because it reacted to light like a diamond. To Sonic, it may as well have been the Disney castle.

"Woah..." The blue hedgehog gasped as he pulled himself out of the hole. He stared at it for a moment, almost laughing at the size, before Blaze called him.

"Come on, I need to warn my family!"

Oh yes, Sonic thought. Dimension hopping assassin on the loose, royalty thinks he's at the other side of the ocean with their daughter giving chase, that's _no good._ Sonic stopped admiring the over-the-top fancy castle and followed Blaze through the streets.

A moment or two later, Amy was climbing out of the hole, giving a similar gasp in wonder to the breathtaking castle, and groaning at seeing Sonic follow Blaze ahead, not waiting for his friends. This was a trend upon people who had never seen it before. As Gardon, Tails and Cream made it to the city streets, Omega had a problem.

"EVEN IF I COULD FIT THROUGH THIS PASSAGEWAY, I AM UNABLE TO ASCEND USING LADDERS." Omega stated from the storm drain, giving his voice an echo-quality to Tails.

Shadow looked up."What do we do now, fox?"

Tails looked down the hole. Taking note that the explosion caused by Omega disrupted the portal, causing it to fizzle out of existence, Tails figured that they had nowhere else to go, unless they planned to find their way home without them. "Try to find another way out, alright?" He took out a spare communicator, and tossed it to Shadow. "When you find it, tell me where you are and we'll pick you up."

Shadow caught it, and put it on his left ear, as his right had his G.U.N. communicator. "Whatever."

"And don't try anything funny!" Gardon added, shouting down the hole. "There's not a person in your little party that even _knows_ this city, and not a person in this _world_ that knows it better than _I _do!"

Shadow grumbled as he walked out of sight. "Come on, let's go." he said to his companions as Gardon pushed the storm drain grid back into place with his foot.

"So where are we?" Amy asked.

"This city is pretty!" Cream added.

"Ah yes. I don't believe I introduced myself, either. Now would be the perfect time for both, I assume! Ahem..." The koala let out a cough, and with a hand gestured to himself. "I am Gardon, captain of the Royal Guard," and then he gestured to the massive castle in the background.

"And this is Soleanna."

* * *

><p>The two rushed around the stone walls, and quickly made it over to the metal gate. Upon the sight of Blaze, the human guard in the booth which opened the gate was delighted to see her highness had returned from her chase with the assassin, but grew confused over the not so familiar person trailing behind.<p>

"Hello madam!" The guard greeted, pressing a button to mechanically open the gate slowly. "I see you're back, but who is this?"

Sonic was about to let his bold ego shine when Blaze answered for him. "He's Sonic. A friend of mine."

"Sonic, hmm?" The guard pondered, as if he briefly heard the name sometime before. In his world, everyone knew Sonic. He was slightly disappointed only a few people knew his face here. It finally clicked with the guard, and he turned to Sonic. "Oh! You're her other-wordly friend that helped retrieve the Jeweled Scepter. Your being here means something's happening, so by all means, go on in."

The gate was wide open by now, and Blaze ran up to the large castle door, Sonic lagging behind a bit as questions on his mind seemed to weigh him down.

"I've seen plenty of castles, but this is a bit too flashy, isn't it?" Sonic asked.

Blaze groaned. "I _know._ The towers were built for an earlier princess, two hundred or so years ago. I'd love to give you a tour, but I think the security of the castle can be compromised."

Sonic nodded. With a portable dimension hopping device, the security could literally be filled with holes. Blaze went and opened the door, letting Sonic get a full view of the castle's foyer.

Decked out on the floor were checkered black and white tiles, and a lavender carpet. The carpet led up the stairs and split at the top of the first set, where the platform held two stairways going left and right. They were accompanied by banners; a crimson arrowed one on the left, and a royal blue indented banner on the right. The railings and wall décor were very smoothly cut, and the ends were cut to look like flames. There was a large portrait of the castle itself framed at the top of the stairway, large enough to point out details from the front door. On the left and right of the foyer, there were hallways leading elsewhere on the ground floor. The chandelier was large and bright, and Sonic would not have been surprised if he could hang other chandeliers from it.

Sonic whistled as he strolled in. "Woo. Nice place."

"Thanks, I guess. But no time to sight see, right now." Blaze explained as she made her way to the hall to the left. "He could be weaving through reality as we speak."

As the two made their way through the hallway, Sonic absorbed the architecture. The wall paper was red, and held a large pattern. Large portraits, at least two meters long, of the nation's former rulers and their finest acts stretched along the wall. Although he didn't look at all of them, Sonic thought some of the ones he did look at were familiar, but he shrugged it off, thinking that this nation Blaze ruled was this dimension's version of England, and went through similar struggles. After a bust of a king with a thin beard and a thick set of whiskers had Sonic stifling giggles, he decided to disregard the art, which got more recent as Blaze went along.

A couple doors later, Sonic and Blaze came to a large white door, contrasting with the brown, well furnished wood and red wallpaper around it. Blaze unceremoniously opened the door to the throne room.

It was a vast, white room, darkened by the night sky shining through the skylights. Rows of lavender and royal blue banners hung from the ceiling. The ceiling was held up by ivory pillars, arches in between them holding up chandeliers which illuminated all but the red carpet leading up to the throne itself. Around the King's throne gold and crimson throne, candles sat unlit. Sonic hadn't seen a castle much like this since he went to Windsor. The small tour of this fabulous building made today memorable.

But for Blaze, it was a Wednesday.

Not stopping to marvel at the sight she saw every day, Blaze looked toward a guard, simply passing by, and made her way to him.

"Hello." Blaze greeted the guard. "Where's my mother and father?"

The slightly shy guard hesitated before answering. "While you gave chase to your assassin, your father felt fear for himself and the Queen. So, he gathered half of the royal guard, and moved in with the guards in the Vault."

"Oh, more guards in the Vault? I was about to suggest that, as I believe that this castle's security could be easily compromised." Blaze stated.

"What?" The guard asked.

Blaze began to explain. "This assassin seems to have the ability to switch between dimensions. He could teleport into the vault and make off with the Jeweled Scepter, or perhaps the Royal Emerald, however leaving behind a portal."

The guard's eyebrows rose. "I assume you want me to tell this to the current commissioner, miss?"

"Yes, the tighter security in the vault is what I was going to recommend, but since that was already applied, I guess that's that. Also, Captain Gardon is back with me, so he should be relieving control of the Royal Guard from... whomever you picked as substitute, effective as soon as he walks in the building."

"Yes ma'am."

The guard made his way to the door, and opened it. Sonic was about to talk when Blaze spoke just before him. "Also, since it's getting dark, tell the commander I will be having a friend over."

The guard froze. Seconds later, the guard's head slowly turned around his shoulder, with a shocked look on his face. A few more seconds later, he pulled together enough courage to ask. "... Context, ma'am?"

Blaze felt a small wave of embarrassment go through her. "Um... I, meant FRIENDS, from Sonic's world... helped me restore everything? Something is happening with the dimensions, they're here, and need a place to spend the night...?"

The answer cleared up a few suspicions on the guard's mind. He nodded. "Yes, I'll try to explain it to him." He slid through the doorway, shutting it.

Now that Blaze didn't have anything to say, Sonic decided it was a good time to ask. "Your parents locked themselves up in a vault with this Royal Emerald of yours, along with half of their security?"

Blaze was relieved about the change of subject. "Oh, the vault is _much_ larger than what you would think. There are barracks where guards stay. There's plenty of space for my mother and father to stay, and I'm sure the Royal Guard could handle sleeping on the floors next to the bunks, if there's not enough space."

Sonic nodded, leaning against a pillar. "Since you're only talking about your parents, I take it you're an only child?" Sonic stopped, to see Blaze bob her head to confirm his guess. "And what is the Royal Emerald, anyway? I asked you before, but you were cut off."

"Oh. The Royal Emerald is, in appearance, a large red Sol Emerald. It gained its name for quite literally being the crown jewel of my family. Because of its size, and no real use, the first king decided to chisel some of it off, and give all those with Royal blood permanent marks of royal family, at a certain age."

Sonic was looking down, imagining it, when he noticed Blaze rubbing her forehead from the corner of his eye. Except, actually looking at her, he realized she wasn't. She was rubbing the round gem that was embedded in her skull.

Blaze went on. "Some people say the Royal Emerald gives fire powers to the family, and the tradition should stop, but my father says it's just a big emerald, and the fire powers are just genes. I mean, my ancestors had fire powers, too."

"Hmm..." Sonic grunted in understanding. "So the Royal Emerald's your version of the Master Emerald?"

Blaze didn't get it quickly, as she had to scour her memories of Sonic's stories from the time they spent on Southern Island during Sonic's initial visit to her dimension. She finally remembered it, and noticed similarities. "Oh, it seems so..."

The two fell silent for a moment. Blaze felt that she hadn't really explained enough, but didn't want to force things on him. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

Sonic remained quiet, but then spoke, a smile reaching across his face as he asked. "Something's been itching me for a while now. Tell me: Describe the process you went through to get to my birthday party."

A heavy, uncomfortable, and slightly disturbing silence was held between them. It lasted a minute, when Blaze started explaining in a very educated manner.

"Erm... um... uh..." The confused cat stupidly stammered, getting more embarrassed with each babble of a word. "...I... uh... didn't..."

Sonic threw his hands in the air. "WHATEVER."

Just a moment later, Gardon, Tails, Amy, and Cream were walking in through the door into the grand hall. They were awed by the vastness of the hall, Cream gasping in delight. They walked over to the cat and the hedgehog, and began to comment on the castle.

"Blaze, this castle is HUGE!" Tails boomed.

Cream giggled. "And pretty!"

"Ah, yes, it is truly marvelous." Gardon stated. "But her highness and Sonic have come here for a reason. Probably business, so no-"

Blaze interrupted him. "Actually, what I came here for was already acted upon: The rest of the Royal Family has moved into the Royal Emerald vault, along with some of the guard. I asked a guard to see if we could stay the night in the castle, with protection of course."

Gardon was surprised. "Glad to see you are thinking ahead, and for the family. And, about our stay, they allowed this?"

"I haven't received a response just yet. I wouldn't see why they wouldn't let them stay. I think they would have earned a night here in his eyes, at least."

Cream intervened. "So this kingdom of yours... are there others, Miss Blaze? What's it like being a princess?"

Amy thought it was a good time to get some information. "Doesn't royalty have to go through arranged marriages?"

Blaze was a bit worried. The questions were good questions; just putting them in a good way was hard. "Uh, yes, Cream. There are others. There are three main countries in this world: Soleanna, the Nega Empire, and Polaritine. This kingdom is Soleanna. It's fairly large, and has control of plenty of islands in the seas. Southern Island is one of them. The Nega Empire, led by one of Eggman Nega's ancestors, tried conquering Soleanna two hundred years ago under a different name, with different ideologies. He was stopped, and killed, which then his children took his place. They lived to their family name, being eggshaped and trying their hand at world domination, when came Nega. Nega thought differently from all his family, abandoned the tradition of attempting world domination in favor of world destruction, simply because he thinks nature produced the world wrong and wants to reset it. Except for his people, though. They're fine because he got them to believe he was right.

"Polaritine has seen us as a rivaling nation for over a thousand years. We don't constantly fight, but they've always been trying to outdo us. They were almost as big, almost as powerful, and almost as good; almost. Fairly recently, the king died, leaving his son in power. Within days, it's driven to the ground. It's not even funny; it's not a joke. It's a tragedy. Eggman Nega wouldn't go in there and take its land; he doesn't want its people. My father won't go in there and try to fix things; they would drive him out. It's sad, really. The prince has been trying to fix things, but is getting desperate. _Very_ desperate."

Something clicked in Sonic's head. "Like, desperate to try to kill you, desperate?"

Cream gasped at Sonic's words. "Sonic..." Amy groaned, disappointed that he couldn't watch what he said around Cream.

Blaze was silent for a moment. "Next question. Being the princess is alright, I guess. Doesn't help that some key people don't like me." She snapped her finger, a tiny flame erupting from her pointer. "And this is why. They don't think I'll make a nice queen, threatening others with my powers. They think it's a... curse."

Disappointed and saddened looks streaked across her guests. This alternative world seemed more at unrest than they had hoped, and they suspected she had it better than she let on. Blaze's face matched theirs for a moment, before straightening up. "And as for the last question, not anymore. Arranged regal marriages was abolished shortly after the reign of a lovestruck queen a couple centuries ago, whose love ran off. It was a good choice, as the only other monarchy was Polaritine. You have _no idea_ how much I lucked out."

As she was finishing the sentence, it became apparent that there was a rhythmic clacking sound and footsteps making their way toward them. Heads turned, and there was a tall, middle-aged man with curly grayed hair, clad in a strapped maroon waistcoat and white trousers, strutting towards them with a black and silver cane with a ruby handle and a toothy grin that had more gold in his mouth than legitimate teeth. In his other hand, he held a young boy, also fancily clad, skipping alongside him. With a tug, the boy stopped his merry skipping.

"Ah, we all did with that one!" The Noble cheered. "Just _imagining_ you getting with that other freak, yeesh. Don't want to see those kids."

"Oh." Blaze said, with the slightest bit of fear in her voice. "Hello..."

"Yeah, hello." The Noble replied, his eyes shifting from the princess to her guests. "Who are these guys?"

"They're... my friends." Blaze answered.

"Your friends?" He laughed, before bending his knees so he could get to eye level with a blue one. "They have names, don't they?"

"Yeah," Sonic began, a bit apprehensive. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."

The Noble's eyes darted to the ceiling, his head bobbing as he thought. "Sonic the Hedgehog, where have I heard that name- AH!" The old man wrapped his arm around his shoulder and pulled him in. "I know you! You're Blaze's boyfriend!"

Whatever emotion that was on Sonic's face disappeared, and the room fell silent, save for a mysterious grinding sound. The noble looked over to see a pink hedgehog, grinding her teeth, her eyes withholding immense anger. _Hell hath no fury_ _like a woman_ _scorned_, the Noble thought to himself.

"_No._" Sonic said powerfully. "No I am _not._"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that a misconception?" He said, backing off, holding up his hands as he stood up.

"Don't worry, I go through something like this _every day_." Sonic moaned.

The Noble chuckled."Heh, sorry... Say, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't... from here?"

"Something is happening," Blaze intervened. "You know how an assassin tried his hand at my life this morning?"

The Noble nodded, stroking his chin. "Right after court, yeah. What's that gotta do with them?"

"Well, it turns out he has something that allows him to switch between dimensions at will... leaving behind portals..." Blaze explained.

"Ah..." The Noble let out. After a moment, he gasped. "... AH. How'd he do that? I thought the closest we got blew you into that burning city place."

"What?" Sonic asked immediately after that last statement.

"Well, the closest _we_ got. There are..." Blaze let out an _ahem_. "... _other_ scientists that are working on such technology."

The Noble understood. "Oh, I see. So this guy can pretty much hop through dimensions like lanes on an empty highway?"

There was a slight pause as Blaze considered the reasoning of his analogy. "... I guess."

"I see, now this guy seems like a threat. Sure, he's got some great improvisation, some nice endurance, and impressive trash throwing skills, but he is so hilariously bad when it came time to shoot, I think my grandson here could have beat him in a one on one fist fight, ain't that right, chum?"

"Yeeeaaah!" The child roared, throwing his arms in the air.

"Adorable, ain't he? Anywho, since this guy can pretty much pop out of nowhere, now I'm actually kind of worried." The Noble said, beginning to backpedal away. "The guards are telling us to leave, and now that I know, I don't blame them. Being near you is just asking for trouble!" The Noble turned away, and lifted his hat off. "Well, have fun hunting!" As he put his hat back on, his grandson began skipping again, and he began skipping with the child out of the room.

As the door shut behind him, Sonic leaned over to Blaze.

"Jesus, this guy _screams_ "disregard females, acquire currency" to me." Sonic whispered.

"That's pretty much his policy." Blaze assured in an equally quiet tone. "That's _all_ their policies. Dethrone me, get the throne for self."

"Wait, wait, wha...?" Sonic replied, shocked.

At that moment, the guard from before came peeking his head through the doorway. "Your highness?"

Blaze sighed. "Yes?"

"The commandant has been informed, and has made changes according to this information. Also, he has guards in position for you and your guests to stay the night." The guard announced. "I'll lead you and your guests there.

"Thank you." Blaze responded.

The band of heroes began to follow the guard through the castle halls. Along the sides, suits of armor and portraits of former kings and queens decorated the halls, but having grown tired, the guests gave not much attention to the decorations.

"So, in the morning, we'll split up into groups, alright?" Everyone was mildly surprised to hear Sonic actually coming up with a plan before it was go-time for once. "We need to retrieve Shadow's gang quickly so they don't wander off to who knows where. Perhaps on the way out in the morning, we can ask for maps to the area so we know how to get around."

"Me and Sonic both have earpiece communicators on ourselves, so if we were in different groups we could stay in contact." Tails stated, taking his earpiece out to show everyone. Sonic was alerted by the statement, and withdrew his earpiece from underneath his sock to also exemplify it, garnering less praise than Tails for his rather disgusting treatment of the device. "So splitting up seems like the best idea."

There was a silence as everyone agreed. There wasn't much to say about that subject anymore, so Tails decided to revive an old topic.

"I've got a bad feeling about that guy," Tails yawned, stretching his arms behind his head. "He was charismatic, but perhaps too much."

Amy caught Tails' contagious yawn, and responded with one of her own. "Yeah, who was that guy anyway?"

Blaze looked at the guard, cautious if he could hear her. "Hopefully, it shouldn't matter. But in case you do need to know his name... Gerald Tower, a noble. His family gained nobility for their ancestor's work at commanding forces a couple hundred years ago. They seemed worthy of the honor, up until now."

"Up until now?" Tails repeated in wonder. "What happened?"

Blaze paused, a bit confused on how to say it, or if she should. After awhile, she messaged her temples with her fingers. "I don't want to talk about it."

Mostly everyone was fine with her answer. Tails, Amy and Cream saw that it could be a touchy subject, Gardon understood already, but Sonic felt differently. He was about to try to get her to chew it up and spit it out, but then the guard answered.

"Trials." The guard said, his voice low and monotonous. "After an incident with her then-unknown fire powers at a party, the noble families all gathered around and sent suit after suit against her, saying she'd use her fire powers to gain more political power."

The cat's head sunk low as she felt the stares hit her. It felt uncomfortable to her, being the center of attention, and felt sorry for by all present.

"They say she has too much going for her, like seven years of witch trial after trial isn't enough going against her." The guard mumbled on as he reached a doorway and stopped. "There's nothing noble about them, but they're a royal pain."

Blaze, realizing she was at the door to her room, made her way in with haste, taking the time to lock her door.

"Those creeps are gonna cause a civil war over her, and she _hates_ the attention." Rambling on, the others thought he was just thinking out loud by now. The red-dressed guard led the walked down several more doors, talking to no one at all about the situation, until he stopped at another door. "The guest rooms are this one and the next four rooms, though you shouldn't need all of them. There's two beds a room, and plenty of furniture if you all decide to cram into one room."

Gardon stepped forward. "Thank you for the... explaining." The koala turned to the otherworldly guests. "I have a spot in the barracks with my name on it, and I will make sure your doors will be guarded throughout the night. Good night."

With a couple good nights exchanged, they picked rooms, and went to bed. There will be a long day ahead of them.

* * *

><p><strong>BOOM BEHBEH. Back when I said I wanted to make fewer, but longer chapters, I wasn't just playing around. There's always something plot changing or awesome in each chapter, I guarantee. And it's ONLY GONNA GET <em>BETTER<em>.  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 4: Not in Kansas

**I wanted to write more for this chapter, but I noticed it chapter had about 8500 words in it and it hadn't reached the end I wanted yet. Plus, today's Sonic's 21st Anniversary, so I thought "wouldn't it be cool if I updated today" and I decided to just cap it off at a good point.  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four: Not in Kansas<br>**

Tails woke up sprawled across the bed, having a good night's sleep. These royal beds were so comfortable, the beds feeling like clouds and the blankets as fluffy as his own fur. He looked over to Sonic, sleeping sideways on the blue arm chair with a likewise blanket tossed over himself, covering almost all of him, except for his quills, however those blended in with the surroundings, as if it were camouflage.

Tails got out of the bed, now refreshed from the good night's sleep, took the time to examine the room around him. The walls were patterned with royal blue and purple designs inspired by water. It was very subtle, it seems, as Sonic hadn't noticed it before. He made his way over to the window, and saw the cityscape. This seemed to be the old fashioned section of town, because in the distance he could see almost familiar sky scrapers assembling together, towering over the mostly small, classical buildings of the city surrounding the castle itself. It was a nice sight. He felt like Sonic, kind of, taking time to absorb a good view whenever he got the chance.

A knock upon the bedroom door rattled Tails from his aspiring hero trance.

"Oh Sooooniiiiic!" Amy's voice chimed as she knocked on the bedroom door. "Sooooniiic?"

As Tails went over to the doorway, he decided to try to hide the fact Sonic was still asleep. One, it might be funny to tell him about it, two, Sonic needs his sleep. With his objective in mind, Tails opened the door.

"Good morning Amy." Tails greeted, stepping aside to let them in. "Looking for Sonic?"

Amy nodded as she accepted the greeting. Cream followed her in, a frown on her face. "Yeah, Cream's getting a bit worried, and I think she needs some true blue rejuvenation."

The fox tilted his head. "Oh, what happened?" Tails asked.

Amy leaned against the blue chair's armrests, looking down at her feet. Cream went up to her side. "Cheese was feeling sick yesterday, so Cream left Cheese at home. Now she thinks he's feeling lonely, and feels bad..."

While Amy was explaining, Tails noticed the blanket Sonic was under creep down his face, revealing the wide-eyed, alert, and tense hedgehog, whose lips seemed to shout "_DOOOOO IIIIIIT_" yet remained silent, as he stealthily pulled the blanket back over his face and ears.

Tails quickly snapped to meet Amy's eyes before she finished. "Oh, well, Sonic went out searching early. Didn't even leave through the front door, he just blasted out the window. He had the decency to open it before that, at least."

"Oh..." Amy sighed as she pushed herself into a typical standing position. "Well, thanks anyway. Come on, Cream, maybe-"

"Maybe I could come along?" Tails asked.

Cream's face lit up as she looked at Amy with a smile. "Can he? Can he?"

Amy smiled lightly as she looked at Cream. "Of course he can." She turned to Tails. "Come on! Any idea on where Sonic went?"

Tails followed Amy as she and Cream went into the hallway. "Not a clue, really. Wherever the wind blew at the time, probably."

Amy laughed. "Guess we know where we're headed! Come on!"

Before Tails left, he looked back at the sly hedgehog from under the sheet again, to see him with his arm in the air and a thumb raised in approval. With inspired courage, Tails shut the door and ran to catch up with Amy and Cream.

Sonic arose from his camouflaged chair, wiping the sweat from his brow. "That was close!" The cocky hedgehog laughed, almost loud enough to be heard by Amy down the hall. He took a moment to look around, before hopping out of the tantalizingly comfy arm chair. He decided to look out the window and scan the city. Not just look at it; scan it. Paths, loops, and all those crazy things he had back home. To his disappointment, this city didn't have many that fit his liking; specifically, he couldn't see ways he could typically make it to the roof of a building, without climbing the walls or the fire escapes or some such thing. Well, not from where he was sitting. If he were higher, he could get more of a birds-eye view of the city.

He could climb the tower.

That idea hit him like a train, and as the train passed, he could only smile in pure euphoria. Climbing up this Disney Castle had to be thrill, and it must have an awesome view, like he wouldn't believe. He wondered if he would be above some clouds at that height. And climbing the building itself, getting a hands-on look at the architecture that went into this marvel of over-accomplishment in castle-building made him grin.

"Alright, let's do this."

* * *

><p>Awakened by the sound of footsteps, Blaze woke up rather late. She tends to lock herself into her room for days after people outright try to kill her, a habit most people in her world have come to respect. However, she has things to do, and people to meet, so she reluctantly gets up, and leaves the room. She asked a guard where her guests stayed. Being told Tails, Amy, and Cream had just left, she decided that left her pinned with Sonic, and Gardon, if he decided to come along.<p>

Blaze made her way over to the room she was told Sonic was residing in, and stopped to wonder what exactly she was getting into by getting out of bed this morning. And on top of that, being with Sonic was a coin toss between either side of the security spectrum. Meaning she's either safe as can be, or everything will be against her. Sighing, ready to accept whatever the day brought her, she twisted the door knob, and pushed the door open.

"Alright, Sonic, let's-"

Blaze saw Sonic's legs suspended from above the window, his feet on the window pane, closing it shut as he pushed himself up the castle.

"Oh, are you kidding..."

Blaze rushed to the window, and slammed it open. Cautiously, she put one hand on the window sill and the other on the glass, took a breath in, and leaned out.

"WHAT THE _HELL_, SONIC!" Blaze screamed in genuine anger.

"Good morning to you too, Blaze." Sonic replied with his trademarked sarcastic tone, scaling the castle.

"What are you doing up there?" The cat asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Oh, I'm gonna scan the city, find routes, and after that I'm gonna jump across the moat, walls, and streets onto that building there from up here."

"Does "insanity" have a definition to you?" Blaze asked. "Have you tried a map?"

"Oh, what, a cat's too scared to climb a few trees?" Sonic teasingly joked, his laughing coming to an abrupt halt as he heard the crackle of flames. "OKAY OKAY point taken, I'm sorry."

Sonic pulled himself onto the slanted roof, dusting off himself as he looked up at the towers. These high towers held staggeringly high viewpoints on the city; not quite above the clouds as he had imagined, but good enough to satisfy his hunger for a bird's eye view. Before Sonic went further, he felt he had to address his partner.

"Look, are you coming up here or not?" Sonic asked.

Blaze looked down at the moat about sixty feet below her. "I'd rather not..."

Sonic was about to respond to her answer, when the he realized something. His ego was becoming inflated. His eyebrows flattened at the notion. Well, more inflated than usual. After a moment of reevaluating the situation, the resolutions he saw, and their possible implications, he sighed as he had to pick one.

"Fine, fine." Sonic said, dropping back down onto the ledge.

"What?" Blaze asked.

Sonic answered between breaths as he climbed back down the castle. "I'm getting off my high horse."

Blaze backed away from the window, and Sonic swung into the room. Blaze was jarred by his choice.

"Er, you didn't have to-"

"Hey, friends first, alright?" Sonic interrupted with his reasoning. "Besides, nothing's gonna happen to me or the tower, plenty of time for it later, so don't worry about it... and _quit giving me that stare like I just jinxed it_."

* * *

><p>Shadow awoke on the concrete floor of the storm drain. Through weary eyes, he saw that Rouge and Omega were up, discussing important matters: Location, location, location.<p>

"... doesn't work?" Rouge asked in surprise.

Omega nodded, however attempting this action came off as a tiny bow. "THE SATELLITE CANNOT BE DETECTED. PERHAPS THIS IS BECAUSE OF OUR BEING UNDERGROUND, BUT THIS STORM DRAIN SYSTEM IS MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE ONE IN STATION SQUARE, IF MY DATA FILES ARE RELIABLE. IT IS MUCH LARGER."

Rouge understood, looking around the green and white color schemed room they were in. "Oh, well. We'll get topside and we'll get the connection back, once Shadow gets..." Rouge stopped talking once Shadow began to rise. "Oh, you're awake."

Shadow yawned. "Mhm. So what's this about satellite connection...?"

Rouge crossed her arms. "Maps, Shadow. I think you would have overheard us last night, Shadow, but you were dozing off."

Shadow groaned, as he recalled he was. He welcomed the concrete floor's cold embrace several times quicker than his comrades. Omega stomped over to the massive metal door at one end of the room. It had to be thirty feet tall.

"Last night, Omega was getting confused because he wasn't able to connect to any G.U.N. radio frequencies. Instead, he got radio stations that neither of us knew existed. This sparked an debate on whether or not we're still in Kansas anymore, metaphorically. Soon after that, I dozed off, and he kept on trying to fix the connection. Overnight, he noticed the storm drain layout of Station Square was different, and then just started throwing everything at the wall to see what still stuck. And apparently, we got nothing."

As Rouge finished, a loud mechanical noise roared behind her as the door began to lift. Omega's "machine smooth talking" prevailed once again as he turned to his comrades.

"THE LANGUAGE OF MACHINE IS THE SAME. STILL THE SACRED ZEROES AND ONES." Omega stated. "SUCH RELIEF, IN SUCH DESPAIR."

The door opened to reveal that they were at the bottom of a large pit, its walls metal and bearing scaffolding all the way up to the top. Pipes along the sides of the wall and ladders on each scaffold seemed to clutter the giant hole.

"Alright boys," Rouge began, flying above them. "Grab on."

The ascended up the storm drain, which proved to be a tiring task for Rouge, as Omega was certainly not a light-weight model. He did not receive the designation "Walking Arsenal" for carrying only what was necessary. When they reached the top, they found themselves at a construction site. Workers looked over, in slight confusion, but returned to their work without much of a second thought.

The buildings looked much different than those in Station Square. Many were laid in brick, some had Gothic architecture, and from them flew the flags of a nation that they've never seen before. Along signs of the stores were brand names that did not exist, and not far from where they were flowed a canal, with a smooth stone bridge arching over it. They stood in silent wonder of this foreign place, for a moment. It was broken by Omega's powerful words:

"SATELLITE CONNECTION: NOT FOUND." The robot boomed.

"_Yeah,_ we're not in Kansas anymore." Shadow said, walking away from the group and toward the barbed wire fence. "Let's find out where we are, exactly, outside of this construction site."

With a swift jump, Shadow leaped at the cargo crate next to the fence and kicked off it, landing himself over the fence. Rouge followed by simply flapping herself over, whilst Omega used his thrusters to propel himself over and with his allies.

"Alright, should we split up, find clues and come back here, or stick together?" Rouge asked her group.

Shadow's eyes traced behind her. "I don't think that will be entirely up to us."

Rouge turned and saw what caught Shadow's attention: Tails, Amy, and Cream were running up to them.

"Hey." Tails greeted. "Listen, we're all going to search the city, and try to find that assassin before he goes for anybody else."

The black hedgehog saw that coming from a mile away. "Alright, do you have a plan on how to find this thief of the night?"

"Shadow, he's hilariously bad at stealth. How he snuck up on you boys is beyond me, because every step I heard him take made the sound of a window breaking." Rouge joked. "Though they didn't come from his feet."

Tails interjected. "Anyway, we plan on splitting up."

Shadow smiled, just as he expected. "Alright, whatever you say. Rouge, Omega, come-"

He was cut off by Tails. "Nope. I'm going with Rouge and Omega. You're going with Amy and Cream."

Shadow almost laughed at the thought. "What?"

Tails began to explain."We need to find this guy, and all of you together would try to get away from us and return home. Not like that would work, anyway."

Rouge, seeing as how Tails mentioned their location, had to ask. "Oh, well, do you have an idea where we are?"

The fox smiled. "Yes. We're in Blaze's dimension. And before you go back to the portal we came from, I managed to find my way back to it, to find that the portal's gone, so if you try ditching us you're stuck here."

Amy threw in her two cents. "Yeah, and I don't think Blaze would take running from an agreement nicely, especially since this is her kingdom!"

Shadow clutched his skull in agitation for a moment. "I know that, ugh. Okay, okay. We'll work with you, just–" Shadow pointed at Rouge. "Stop _warmongering._ The better I look to these people, the better my mood." He turned to Amy. "And you too. Stop it."

In obvious dissatisfaction amongst them, they split up in the formation Tails said. They split, and began scouring the city.

* * *

><p>Back in Sonic's world, in a meadow a trio walked.<p>

The chameleon groaned. "We just HAD to take this route, didn't we?"

The crocodile grinned. "Yup, cause the longer route we take, the more area we scan for crime!"

The bee giggled. "Yeah, and Vector's always right!"

The Chaotix were on the way to a crime scene, something about noises around an old lady's house keeping her up at night, and they were taking the scenic route. Which meant going out of their way to the "Rabbit Residence", as the bee called it, trying to find it catchy but ultimately failing.

"Except when he's wrong, though." Charmy the Bee added. "Then he's wrong, and more importantly_ not right_."

"Wow, I THINK YOU'RE ONTO SOMETHING!" Vector the Crocodile shouted sarcastically.

"But really, why are we stretching this far away from the contract's position? This place is further away from our agency than the destination." Espio the Chameleon pointed out. "Take this as criticism, my friend, but this is foolish."

"Foolish? HA!" Vector laughed. "You use that word so much, it's lost it's meaning to us, right Charms?"

"... Erm, boss?" Charmy dragged out, looking to the distance.

Vector was irritated. "What?"

"Uh, look!" The bee pointed down the path.

Vector rolled his eyes over to the direction his apprentice was pointing. "This better be GOOD, Charmy, you wasted a perfectly good comeba-"

Vector's rambling cut short at the sight. Seeing as how what was to be seen left the biggest mouthed of them there speechless, Espio observed what lay in the path ahead; the Rabbit Residence. He spotted three robots outside the front door. Orange, round, silly in animation. Eggpawns, definitely.

Espio withdrew one of his many kunai, closed his eyes, and began playing out some of the numerous scenarios that could happen. He could stealth take out one robot, kick its carcass to another, and toss a ninja star at the last one. Or he could jump from head to head, destroying their heads with kunai while on top of each one. Or, he could jump from behind, throwing two stars at the two robots in the back, and kick the last one's head into its body. Yes, that was a simple and one that can be pulled off efficiently.

"Alright," Espio began. "Let me hand-"

Espio then saw Vector charging down the path, with Charmy in tow. Espio sighed, and lowered his weapon. The chameleon dashed after his reckless comrades.

Meanwhile, down the road, where the trouble was brewing, someone was answering those at the door.

"No, I _won't_ come with you!" Vanilla screamed at the robots.

"THAT IS NOT A REQUEST MA'AM." The robot stated. "THIS IS AN _ORDER._"

The mother didn't know what to do. She opened the door because Cream was out for the night, and she thought had come back just in time to see Cheese better. But she wouldn't have answered if she knew it was to these things. Not while Gemrel was still charging. She wasn't left with too many options here. Or perhaps there were more options than she knew. For example, could these robots even fit through the doorway? That'd open up a plethora of things she could do.

While considering their stature, Vanilla heard something whiz by her. Suddenly, Cheese had slammed into the face of an Egg Pawn. It was startled, throwing its arms in the air, spinning, and backing up. Vanilla shut the door in fear, hoping perhaps Cheese could handle these enemies. Somehow.

The robot twisted and turned with the Chao on its face, guns pointed at by both. An emergency procedure began where in case of a latching opponent, it would attempt shooting off the latched on object. As the arm drew the hand-gun closer to its face, Cheese saw some opportunity raise. Without haste, Cheese smashed into the hand, causing it to shoot at another robot. He then pried the thumb away from the pistol. Cheese then pulled the trigger when the gun was facing its rightful owner. He pivoted the pistol around to the last robot, who had his pistol aimed right at him.

Suddenly, the robot was lifted by its sides, and after a moment of panic, the metal robot was torn in two by Vector. Cheese dropped the weapon and stuck his hands in the air, only for Vector to pick him up with one hand and plop him on his shoulder, laughing.

"Oh, how ya feelin', Cheese Bond?" Vector asked the Chao.

"... Chao." Cheese answered exquisitely.

* * *

><p>Eggman stared blankly at the computer screen. His jaw lazily hung agape as his powerful mind tried to comprehend what he thought he saw through the first person cameras of the Egg pawns, just moments ago.<p>

His robots.

Outsmarted and beaten by a _Chao_. The Chaotix, he was okay with; they've done so before. Even Charmy has destroyed the motherboard with a sting to the face of his robots.

BUT A PET _CHAO,_ ON ITS _OWN._

There was no way, he can't believe this. Eggman clenched his forehead with his aching hands. This is just disgraceful. He felt like he ought to steal that Chao, and hold it ransom against that girl, wherever she was. He'll get to that later. But first off; How would he get this Chao... Cheese, was it called? Not only can it fend off his standard enemy, but it was guarded by the Chaotix. How would he get it away from the Chaotix.

Considering, he glanced toward Metal Sonic, sitting in standby in its chamber. A moment later, he threw his hand in the air, a "bah" sounding grunt coming from underneath his hilariously large mustache. The Chaotix had fought Metal Sonic before; this particular model, actually.

There were a couple models of Metal Sonic he kept around. Metal Sonic 3.0 was GOING to be used to team up with Eggman Nega – who claimed to be from the future, of this dimension, fighting a hedgehog named Silver – that was until it got reprogrammed. Eggman never understood the raving lunatic. For a couple months, he's from an alternative dimension, then, he's from the future, and now he's back in the other dimension. Anyway, Metal Sonic 3.0 was currently undergoing upgrading, in an attempt to surpass Sonic's capabilities, but was not due to be finished during this world dominating campaign.

The Metal Sonic in Eggman's current presence was _the traitor_. It abandoned him, and assumed his identity to collect the powers and data of twelve of Sonic's friends, rivals, and people he couldn't really care about, in an attempt to become an ultimate being. As punishment for this treason, Eggman created another, more loyal, and superior Metal Sonic, and used it more often, giving the two-faced Metal Sonic less of a chance to even see the blue blur he hated so much, let alone put him out of his misery.

Eggman walked over toward it. As it stood in its chamber, connected to a charging system to fuel its already low-energy standby, it could still perceive movement and sound within a distance. It could barely make out Eggman's stare from beyond the glass, and it could hear his sudden burst of laughter, as the fat doctor walked away out of hearing range and into the darkness.

As he plomped into his round chair, Eggman brought up a program he used to design his robots. Deciding to forget the hostage idea, he figured it would be better to create a new type of robot to catch these heroes off guard with new, unique traits. These robots would be sent to a robot manufacturing AI elsewhere in the facility, as well as his database. This was all the Eggman needed to bring his master plans into reality.

The problem was conceiving them. Eggman sat in his chair, staring at the screen. For an evil genius, Robotnik had to admit he wasn't too creative with his designs. Almost all of his robots were built with a concept in mind. From the Motobug to the Time Eater, all his creations looked remotely like something in the field he wished the machine to excel in.

"Hmm..." Eggman mumbled. "What do I want... It needs to be a resistant robot; Tall, menacing, durable, not to be felled by a petty homing attack, and _definitely_ not its own weapon! What I need is a juggernaut, that will take any-"

Eggman stopped.

_Juggernaut. _

_As in, the comic book character._

"GEEEEEEEENIIIUUUUUS!" Eggman exclaimed with glee. He quickly and arguably majestically began creating the machine, which will be supplied with special weapons, and utilize a more advanced AI to employ special tactics.

He could see it already; standing tall, donning a dome shaped helmet, protected by mighty pauldrons and black-steel body armor, a mighty machine that could cause Sonic and his friends to flee by the menacing wide-angled shaped crimson visor alone. They will cower in fear, from the immense power of his _LATEST and GREATEST CREATION_:

"... Er..."

Eggman's visions came to a complete halt, as he drew a complete blank on the subject of naming this marvelous idea.

"Bah..." Eggman sighed, placing a finger on the intercom button, and speaking into the mic with audible displeasure. "Cubot and Orbot, get over here and help me name this thing..."

* * *

><p>"Vector!" Vanilla greeted from the doorway.<p>

Vector looked over, and grinned. "Hey! Are you alright?"

Vanilla smiled gently in return. "Yes, I'm fine."

"How did you like our _brand_ of _JUSTICE!_"

Laughing politely, Vanilla shook her head. "As much as usual, Vector."

Cheese flew off the crocodile's shoulder as he began to flex. "Is there anything else the Chaotix Detective Agency can do for you?"

"Uh, Vector..." Espio began, unheard by his comrade.

Cheese glanced around, looked at Vanilla, and pointed down the road. "Chao chao."

Vanilla caught what Cheese was trying to say. "Oh, Cheese! Vector, can you find my daughter, and bring Cheese with you? She left with Amy to meet with Sonic and Tails yesterday, and I haven't seen her since..."

Charmy was shocked. "WHAAAT. She left without CHEESE? That's like having a hotdog without mustard!"

"Or a pizza without sauce!" Vector added.

"... Like cream without cheese." Espio said, resting his face in his hand.

"WE'LL TAKE THE JOB!" Vector announced.

"What about our other client!" Espio asked with his face shooting up from his hands with agitation written all over it.

Vector shook his head. "Bah! It was the same old lady as last time! You know, the one that buried her cat? And I thought, after that whole doppelganger conundrum, we ought to take our time getting there, in case something even crazier than _THAT_ went down."

Grumbling, Espio gave in. He'd rather be on the streets than searching for a half-dead cat making noises with its throat clogged with dirt.

"We'll deliver Cheese for you," Vector promised as he turned to Vanilla. "And we'll make sure your daughter's safe!"

"Thank you, Vector!" The mother replied.

The crazy bee flung himself away from the group. "C'mon guys! We gotta go _FAST_!"

The trio dashed away from the house, leaving Vanilla in the doorway.

"... Those guys are hammier than a pig." Vanilla laughed, closing the door.

The Chaotix rushed straight to Station Square. No scenic routes, no delays, nothing. They only slowed down if they were caught up by some Egg Pawns. As they drew closer, they noticed an increase in robots and their variety.

When they got to the city, it was comprehensible chaos to the Chaotix. Robots and enforcers skirmished in the streets with equal efficiency, laying waste to each other with matched fighting ability. Bits of machines and some blood littered the streets. As the Chaotix rushed through the broadway-turned warzone, Eggman's machines turned their priorities from the G.U.N. soldiers to the trio and the Chao. This opened a window of opportunity for the soldiers to place missiles into the robots without fear of swift counterattack. The robots blown to bits behind him, Vector gave the solider who got the last one a thumbs up.

"Hey, I know Eggman's attacking the place, but any idea what the big picture looks like?" Vector asked. "What the numbers look like, what Eggman wants, where Sonic is...?"

A man dressed fancier than the rest took a step forward. "I would know a little bit on that." The lieutenant stated. "To answer your questions in order; it seems the sides are about even in size and power. Our men don't all have the kind of weapons to be taking on these robots, but our tanks, mech walkers, and robots are constantly moving around to where help is needed. There's also some joking about the radio about a giant truck with some heavy cannons in the back, which I think is just joking because I swear if they DID give that thing firepower... anyway. Eggman hasn't made an announcement about anything, which is peculiar for him. Something we shouldn't trust."

"Perhaps this attack was a ruse, of some sort?" Espio brought up, putting his wisdom on the table.

The lieutenant nodded. "It very well could be, but the higher-ups should already know about this. And about Sonic, we have no idea. And we lost all communication with and idea where our operatives Shadow, Rouge, and Omega are. So really, there is no big picture, so we're just tasked to hold the city, expecting worse to come."

The situation did not please Vector at all. Not only was Cream not around here, but it seemed as though it there was no one especially cut-out for city saving in the city.

"Well, this city needs heroes." Vector began, interwining his fingers and cracking his fingers. "And, ladies and gents of Station Square, THE CHAOTIX AGENCY IS ALWAYS THERE!"

The crocodile, with fire in his eyes, charged in a random direction screaming something along the lines of "da Cha-ah-tix ain't nothin' ta fuck wit". Espio raced after him, shouting at him to get him to calm down before he gets hit by that giant truck the lieutenant mentioned. Vector had quickly found some robots to blindly run at, when suddenly an airborne car flew into them and blew them away like the wind picked them up and whisked them into the sky.

The cause of this came running out from beyond the corner, looking around in panic. Espio remembered the hairstyle anywhere. This white hedgehog, with yellow eyes, and neon blue streaks on his palms, was Silver the Hedgehog. Silver's head was turning back and forth frantically, before looking above, and below. Seeing his chance, Silver lifted the sewer lid in the center of the street with his psychic powers and hopped in, closing it after him.

Before anyone could begin to question his presence here, a faint voice was heard coming from around the corner.

"... thief, when I get my hands ON YOU, YOU'RE GONNA WISH YOU NEVER TOUCHED _MY EMERALD!_"

Everyone in the Chaotix could tell who that was any day of the week. Knuckles raced into sight, having seen where Silver had gone. Paying no mind to the Chaotix other than a passing glance, Knuckles jumped, and punched the lid. This rocketed the metal plate down under the streets, and Knuckles fell into the hole, chasing Silver.

After a moment of silence, Espio spoke. "As much as I'd like to do something... Let's not get involved in their problems."

Vector's berserk rage had calmed down. "I think we should help Knux."

"Yeah, he's our friend!" Charmy chimed.

"Look, I'm friends with both Knuckles and Silver, and I don't want to multitask." Espio groaned. "I'm just not in the mood for drama today."

"What, are Thursdays the new Monday or something?" Vector asked.

Espio shook his head. "Nah, it's just been a rough month. I mean, that whole... _doppelganger incident_ happened just last week. I think everyone's had their fair share of anger, sadness, and disappointment for a good while now." The chameleon sighed. "_Everyone_ was upset, and we spent a lot of our efforts trying to track down a conspiracy, which was actually looking pretty fruitful, only for the guy to show up at his own funeral, steal the casket with his own corpse in it, and began asking, and I quote, "why the hell were there two of me." After having the case taken from us and put in the hands of the CIA and FBI, I just think I need a vacation, and _not_ get tangled up in another perilous tale."

"You know, I wonder what happened to Mouse..." Vector trailed off.

"Anyway," Espio began before Vector went on. "I think we should stick to finding Cream, giving her Cheese, and then protecting the city. I mean, Vector we are crime fighters, and we should know that Eggman is breaking many laws with this invasion, right? And we have people to save?"

Vector was the slightest bit apprehensive.

Espio knew he needed a little encouragement. "And there would ought to be some reward in exchange for-"

Grabbing Espio and Charmy and pulling them into a group hug, Vector cried out, "ALRIGHT!" He lifted one of his arms and pointed toward one of the taller skyscrapers. "LET'S SAVE THIS CITY!"

Vector ran forward, with no real plan in mind. Charmy followed, humming "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts", behind him trailing Espio, whose blank expression was hiding well the fact that he thought a show about the Chaotix and their day-to-day antics would be very successful.

* * *

><p>Later in Blaze's dimension, the search for the assassin was much less successful than the thought of a Chaotix sitcom. As a matter of fact, they spent hours roaming around. Blaze thought she could act as a tour guide for Sonic in her world, but to her displeasure he instead ran around and asked "hey what's this?" to everything they had come across. Shadow was fairly annoyed by the girlishness of Amy and Cream, and Tails was felt a bit alienated by Rouge and Omega, who did not enjoy his presence. The one thing that they had managed to do was memorize the city. Talk over the radio decided that they would meet in the castle, or outside it, to turn in for the day. Tails, Omega, and Rouge were first to call it quits, withdrawing into the castle. Half an hour later, Shadow, Amy, and Cream agreed to end their search, despite being a somewhat functional team. If only it had been completely focused.<p>

"This city isn't that pretty, Cream." Amy debated. "Sure, it's certainly nice, but Sonic's taken pictures of prettier cities and sent them to me."

Shadow felt like he needed to interject. "He posted those in the chat, so it was to everyone."

"Oh, yeah, well either way. Hey Cream, why don't you go to the chat? It's just for us. Sonic, Tails, me... there's no one you don't know."

Cream sighed. "Mama says I shouldn't."

Amy wanted to refute that point, but when it came to her realization that their topics weren't always the nicest topics… Well, that and Sonic, the owner of the chat and a bonafide _dork_, was always kind of passionate about the chat. Perhaps it was his string to us on the days he was away traveling and didn't want it to get "tainted", as he put: meaning, degrade into romance debates, even though no one in the chat was even in a relationship like that. He assumed it would have degraded to talking behind each others' backs. But he didn't always argue; he often figured other people's problems out. He even gave Shadow a rundown of the last fifty years of history, because he was in cyrogenetic slumber throughout the entirety of the Cold War. Sonic can be a bit brash when it comes to his dislikes, but he's a nice guy.

Amy's head lolled back as she daydreamed. Oh, how she yearned for the day, when he would finally fall for her. When the wind will pick up the rose petal, and have it float with it, dancing, living, lov-

"We've been waiting outside for them long enough." Shadow's statement broke Amy's chain of thought. "Let's head inside."

Amy responded in a snappy manner. "Sonic said he'll be right over, so I'll wait."

Shadow sighed. "That was five minutes ago, but fine. And Cream...?"

Cream looked back. "No thanks, Mister Shadow, I'll say with Amy!"

His expression showcased Shadow's disappointed feelings. "Alright."

The black hedgehog began making his way to the illustrious building. The hell was Sonic doing? Now, Sonic loves seeing sights, but even on a bad day he would have been done with this whole town hours ago. Was the idiot chatting up Blaze or something? Shadow snickered as he passed through the doorway. Well, Shadow couldn't blame him for being relatively useless and getting a tour more than he blamed Amy and Cream for spending their time doing the same thing, rather than attempting to find their objective, the assassin.

Shadow stopped in his tracks.

"... _Wait a minute._" He said under his breath.

Nearby, the assassin avoided choking on his own fear.

* * *

><p><strong>I kinda feel like I half-assed the Chaotix section, so I might revisit that. Thank you bitches and Happy 21st Anniversary, Sonic. Now go get drunk in several bottles of absinth.<strong>


	6. Chapter 5: Quicksilver

Why is this story so popular all of a sudden?

* * *

><p><strong>CHAPTER 5: Quicksilver<strong>

Sonic and Blaze walked toward the gates of the castle.

"So, why couldn't we go into that part of town? Unrest going on, or something?" Sonic asked.

Blaze shook her head. "Look, I'm sure you've noticed how the nation is completely split over me, and that part of town doesn't really like me. So someone did a graffiti mural over there, with the subtitle "My God, Help Me Survive This Deadly Love", and–"

The cat was cut off by Sonic abruptly laughing. She rose her eyebrows, and waited for Sonic to finish.

"Ha, oh man, say no more, _I GET IT_. Ah, I saw that coming, too." Sonic shook his head. "Just tell me, how off model was it?"

Blaze gave a confused look, which became more disgusted as she began to recall the terrible image. "... Very, and how do you know about it...?"

"Oh, there's a variation in my world, except less furry," Sonic explained. "And more gay."

"Why are you _enjoying_ this?"

"Oh, because this kind of stuff is an everyday thing to me, and I've learned to laugh it off, except in extreme cases of wrong. I told you about this on Southern Island, remember?"

"Well, I'm glad I'm a world away."

"Sadly you're still on the same rock as _Marine._"

Suddenly, Shadow slid past the gates on his side, his hoverboots keeping him barely off the ground as he bent to drag his hand along the concrete. At seeing Sonic and Blaze, his shoes powered down, and gravity dragged his feet to the floor. Standing upright, he groaned.

"Dammit, you two had me worried." Shadow spat toward the two. "At first I thought you two were just taking your sweet old time, then I figured the assassin got the jump on you. Seems I should have just kept on walking."

"Whatever, man." Sonic shrugged. "Now that you know we're not corpses in a back alley, let's head inside."

As the three went around the corner, Amy and Cream were both delighted.

"Sonic!" Amy cheered. "What took you so long? Did you find anything?"

Sonic shook his head. "No, we didn't." Sonic pointed his finger and grinned. "And if I heard Shadow right, you didn't find squat either."

Amy looked down, sighing. "Oh well. Maybe we can go outside the city tomorrow, find a nice, quiet spot?"

"Yeah, I guess we could search for bases outside the city. Rouge said he wasn't fast? He couldn't have gotten far..." Sonic examined aloud. A few moments of silence passed, and Sonic couldn't resist a joke.

"Sooo, same groups?" Sonic laughed.

"_NO._" Shadow and Amy said in unison.

"I want someone COMPETENT on my team." Shadow argued.

"And I want..." Amy turned to Shadow. "Hey! Are you saying I'm not competent!"

Sonic broke it up before it became a fight. "Alright, alright, we'll scramble the teams."

The team passed through the tall keep doorway. There, the ambient sounds of footsteps, servants, and distant music filled the background. A hum that sounded like air conditioning whirred above the five as they walked. Ever so gently, it died down one or two steps in. Blaze's ears twitched, and she slowed down to take note of this.

"Hmm." She wondered to herself. "Thought I heard-"

A dark figure slammed onto Shadow from the ceiling above the doorway. Everyone yelped in reaction, with Shadow dragging his into a growl of pain. The figure wrapped in black began pulling at something, which Sonic noticed was a dagger which got implanted into the floor upon landing.

"It's him!" Blaze exclaimed as Sonic walked over to the man in black. He had just retrieved the dagger from the tile, when Sonic grabbed his arm and pulled him so that the assassin was facing him. The cloaked man got a glance at Sonic before the blue blur did a roundhouse into the side of his head. The kick sent him flipping sideways and land on his back.

Cream went rushing away as Amy retrieved her Piko Piko Hammer. Shadow had rolled back onto his feet, not happy at all about the greeting he got. Sonic leaped over the attacker, set to slam into his face. Blaze's feet and hands lit on fire as she stomped over to her assassin, ready for round two. But she knew there wouldn't be a round two. There wasn't even a round one, really. The fact that his timid approach at taking people's lives when face to face really hinders his combat abilities shouldn't be breaking news to anyone, really.

Neither is the fact that the assassin is the Prince of Polaritine, Silver.

Well, at least to none of _you_.

I mean, _come on_.

All of those advancing were blown back by a massive surge of energy. They all landed at least ten feet away from where they were standing around the assassin.

"You throw a nice kick," He commented. "But it'll take more than that to beat me!"

Sonic looked at his enemy with a confused, and worried look. "Silver?"

What happened? How did he get here? Why is he here? _He's_ the assassin? Why would he try to kill Blaze? They seemed to get along pretty well at his birthday, unless this Silver is older than the any version Sonic's met and has either been tricked into doing this, or he just went off the deep end. But still, how did he get here, into a different dimension? Wait a minute, didn't Blaze say that he was the prince of a rival nation? How did that work out? How does that make sense?

What?

Silver turned to Blaze, who was currently on a knee, getting ready to pounce. Silver lifted his arm in the direction of a suit of armor, and the sword began glowing a light blue and slowly rose from the hands. Blaze quickly rolled backward to avoid the sword, and just barely sidestepped in time to avoid another toss of it.

Shadow was simmering in anger. _Sneak up with a steel chair, get the drop on me,_ he thought in a growling tone._ And now psychic powers. Strike three, asshole. Gloves are coming off._ Shadow found the fact that Silver had suddenly decided to try to kill them all weird, but there's no time to think about questions like that now. Only how to stop him. Meanwhile, Sonic shared the same mentality, however much less venomous. As Sonic got back onto his feet and paced around him, Shadow waited for the right moment.

Silver rose his hands as he looked at the semi-circle of enemies he made. Where did that pink girl get that hammer, anyway? He pulled out another dagger, and held them both backhanded. Sonic used the pause to get a closer look at the weapons. The knives were large, with a black iron center and steel blades. It took a moment to catch the familiar air of it. _Well, seems that book has a bit more legitimacy than I expected,_ Sonic thought. _Didn't expect much from that King Arthur thing to actually exist._

"Okay, you look cool with those knives and the ninja wrapping stealth getup, we get it." Sonic began. "Now put those away before someone goes _medieval_ on you."

Silver jerked his head toward Amy and her massive hammer. "Tell that to _her._"

The psychic hedgehog of unknown origin swung his hand, sending out a psychic wave. Blaze and Amy got blown back, but Sonic rolled under it. Before Silver could react, the blue blur slammed into his jaw in a well formed spinball, and bounced back. Silver was fairly quick to recover, using some of his psychic power to make him land on his feet. Silver diverged his attention from his opponent to look over to the sword he had launched at Blaze. With a flick of his hand, the sword suddenly went shredding through the air at the Sonic as Silver rushed at him. Sonic turned in time to see the sword flip and spin at him.

At that moment of fear, Sonic lost his cool.

Sonic's whole body twisted out of the way as he snatched the sword from the air. Keeping the momentum, Sonic spun toward Silver and flicked his wrist as the sword hit the dagger. Silver's weapon flew from his hand, sending it flying over everyone's heads, and everyone seemed to watch as it flopped through the air. Sonic quickly followed through with his swing with an overhead smash on his other dagger, knocking it to the floor. Caught completely off guard and now intimidated, Silver began to back off as Sonic brought his sword back. In a move that confused the assassin, Sonic grabbed the sword by the blade, careful not to cut his hands. The ticked off hedgehog then swung around, and smashed Silver on the side of the head with the hard, heavy metal pommel of the sword. The blow sent Silver staggering back onto one knee.

At this point, Shadow rose from the ground. Just as Silver was regaining his senses, Shadow ran at him, leaped, and slammed Silver in the face with a dropkick. Just after impact, Shadow's jet boots blasted into his face, for extra propulsion. The kick had sent the white hedgehog out the front door and down a flight of the stairs outside. This game the group a short moment to collect their senses while he rolled down the stairs.

"Alright, Blaze." Shadow began, turning to her. "Why didn't you tell us it was Silver?"

The cat sighed. "I didn't want to alert you. Plus, I don't think you know him all to well?"

"Why is he attacking you now? It's only been a month since you two were chatting at Sonic's birthday." Shadow recalled.

"You didn't really seem to catch what we were saying, then." Blaze pointed out. "I was asking why he was from the future, and he was telling me he was always in the future. I would have pointed it out, but I was confused at the time. So now, I'm wondering if the Prince isn't really the heir to his throne, if that is the same Silver, or if we've all been had."

"Hmm." Shadow grunted. "And didn't Sonic tell you about how we met him twice before that party?"

There was a small moment of silence as Shadow and Blaze looked at Sonic.

While they were talking Sonic was staring into the sword in his hands with analyzing, intellectual eyes. It was a sword with a wide blade, a "knightly sword" if he was correct. Before longswords became popular, it was used Although simply made, it was so sleek and clean, likely as it was a sword showcased on a suit of armor in perhaps one of the grandest palaces he's seen. When he noticed eyes upon him and he had been standing there oogling over a sword for much longer than a mere moment, Sonic blinked emptily, and dropped the sword onto the ground–which is to say, jerk his hand back, letting the sword pop up a few inches into the air–as if it carried the plague, shivering in a mixture of fear and disgust as it clanged on the floor.

"Oh yeah, about that." Sonic laughed, scratching the back of his head.

The cobalt hedgehog tried to recall why he didn't bring that up to her. A straight answer never seemed to come, but perhaps an answer of a sort did when the thought of the period just before it came to his mind. This period of time, while he didn't come up with a name for it, felt hollow. When it was happening, it dragged on for two months, but in memory, it felt like only one. Some days he didn't remember completely. One day, he remembers going to sleep in a forest outside a city he was wanting to check out, as there was a festival of some sort supposed to begin the next day. The next morning to his memory comes, and Sonic was waking up in his apartment on the other side of the ocean to where he thought he was. Even his friends had similar experiences. It was simply a hole-filled time. The first encounter with Silver was the event that marked the end of this worrying period.

Sonic shook his head. "You know, I don't know, those two months before it were just so weird, I guess it's–"

"Yeah. Whatever." Shadow cut him off, walking through the door. "Silver's getting back on his feet. Let's get some answers."

Sonic's expression lit up with relief. "Yeah, sure."

Blaze smiled. "Let's."

The three speedsters ran down the steps toward the fully recovered attacker, while Amy and Cream stood behind.

"Shouldn't we be helping?" Cream asked.

"I don't think we should," Amy responded. "Three is a crowd, four is plenty, and remember those times where we got in six person fights? It was chaos. Do you really want to do that again?"

The innocent rabbit recalled the time where she was involved in them. "Oh, dear, no! At least, not without Big..."

Amy remembered the giant furball. "Oh him? Yeah, he was good to have on our side. He took _a lot_ of– ! Cream!"

"What?"

"Go get Tails, Silver may run away!"

"Yes Miss Rose!"

Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze all approached Silver, who was levitating high above where he landed, eyelevel with Amy and Cream, who were up two flights of stairs.

"Okay, seriously, I know you don't like us, but what's the deal?" Sonic asked. "You weren't like this before."

Silver shook his head. "You've never met me, blue hedgehog!"

"Yes, I have! Three times before!"

Blaze looked over. "Sonic, he's different..."

While the few shouted at each other, Silver looked over toward the girls. Well, girl– The rabbit was running up the foyer stairs. The pink hedgehog with the giant hammer was blocking the doorway. If he chooses to escape for the house, Silver hopes she's not good at tennis. But that wasn't the reason he turned his attention over there. He sent out his hand, and one of his daggers and the sword glowed blue. With a flick of the wrist, the sword and the dagger skid across the floor and toward the door. The pink girl managed to yank her foot away from a blade as it flew through the doorway, and off the flight of stairs. As soon as he did so, Silver dropped his levitation, and plummeted to the ground, ready to send a blast wave as he hit it.

"SONIIIC!" She cried out as the weapons flew toward Sonic, catching his attention. As he fell, Silver judged if the weapons missed Sonic, they shall be right at Silver's feet for his use.

Sonic swung his head around to see the flying projectiles advance toward him rather slowly through the air. The hedgehog had enough time to shake his head, before beginning to shock the onlookers with what may as well have been psychic powers.

Sonic twirled out of the direct line of fire, and snatched the dagger from the air with his right hand. Continuing his spin, he grabbed the sword with his left, in a backhanded position. At this point, Silver landed on the ground and was observing Sonic's stunt. On his third turn, Sonic tossed the dagger into the air. This point in time is when everyone was able to bear facial expressions about this scene. The fourth spin is when he tossed the sword into the air. On the fifth twirl, he grabbed the dagger with his left hand, holding it backhanded, and on his sixth he grabbed the sword with his right, properly this time. On his seventh spin, Sonic stopped and stood with the dagger and the sword in practical positions.

Everyone was silent as they wondered where Sonic got _that _skill from.

Shadow had to speak up. "Where the _hell_-"

"Okay Silver, if you're going to keep this up, playtime is over." Sonic told Silver, cutting Shadow off. "So are you really sure you want to do this?"

Silver blinked in mild awe. With simple, slight hand movements, the weapons were pulled from Sonic's hands. A flick of Silver's wrist, and the blades went up, over the fence, and flopped disgracefully into the moat below.

"Best choice you've made all week." Sonic complimented, before suddenly sending himself at him in a ball.

Silver jumped aside and watched as Sonic kept rolling away. He turned to see Shadow coming at him with a Chaos Spear. In reaction, Silver sent a psychic wave at Shadow and blew him back, narrowly dodging his ethereal spear. Blaze had tried to kick him as he got up, but he stayed low as the fiery roundhouse went over him and she skid across the rock floor, leaving fire in her wake. The princess swung her hand out, casting a streak of fire across the floor toward the prince. He swung back to his feet, and spread his legs out so the fire trail went between them. Then, from his left, he heard an unmistakable whirr.

Sonic's rolled up self sped up the stairs and slammed into Silver's head, knocking him into the fence. Sonic uncurled while still in the air, and let out a cheerful "Woo!" as he fell to the ground.

Shadow rose from the ground and charged him. Silver thought another psychic wave would do the trick, but Shadow slid underneath. When the wave cleared him, Shadow saw the perfect opportunity to utilize a new feature his jet shoes had gotten: Power Boosters. They propelled with explosive force, compared to the stable hovering the shoes normally did. G.U.N gave them to Shadow so he could change direction and stop easier, as those were things he wasn't top notch at. Shadow pushed himself a bit upright, and with a smirk stretching across his face, he threw himself backward and sent a rocket propelled kick to Silver's jaw.

Silver flew up into the air, and over the fence. He regained his senses in time to take flight. He took a slow glide under the bridge, to get his thoughts together.

Should he go ahead and try to kill her now, and get the job over with? Taking her down now would be hard with the other two there. They're kinda tough, now that they're fighting now and not sitting ducks. But Silver's heard that Sonic has a lot of friends, and perhaps some of them should not be met. Running from this fight, with Sonic involved, may have him get his friends. So, Silver decided as he flew up over the bridge, this ends now.

"Come on down, Silver." Sonic taunted. "Forget next week, I'll knock you _back home_."

Silver plunged at the ground, sending out a shockwave that the others expected and avoided easily. Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze formed a triangle around him, limiting his options. He was going to try levitating out of there and send a wave to them all, but then...

_Thirty seconds ago, elsewhere..._

Cream threw the door open. "Sorry!" She said as the door slammed on the wall. "You have to come quick!"

"What's happening?" Rouge asked.

"The mean killer is attacking!" Cream explained. "He's attacking mister Shadow, mister Sonic, and miss Blaze just out front!"

"MUST MAINTAIN MISSION SUCCESS/FAILURE RATIO TO CONTINUE BEING ASTRONOMICAL." Omega stated.

"Just out front?" Tails asked.

Cream nodded. "Yes!"

The fox looked out the window, which just overlooked the path into the manor. He looked back inside, and saw Rouge just finishing the same action. With a smile, Rouge looked at Omega, and ordered. "You grab the back end..."

* * *

><p>A window smashed open a couple stories above the doorway. All eyes looked yonder to behold a sight unforeseen; a walking arsenal, about to jump from the window. However, it would not simply fall; it has aid of three flight-capable allies with firm grips onto his metallic person, along with thrusters to propel him to high speed.<p>

Omega was preparing for battle. "EXECUTING RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES .MP3... SUGGEST INSULT TO TARGET."

"Um..." Tails wondered, confused. "... stupid meatbag."

As the orchestrated song began to play from his internal speakers used for government broadcast, Omega accepted the term.

"PREPARE TO DIE, STUPID MEATBAG." Omega boomed.

_Oh shit,_ Silver thought. _It's Sonic's friends._

"_Yes._" Sonic said, breathless.

Omega tipped over, and began to fall, gathering speed. Rouge, grasping his shoulders, used her wings to turn him upward over the ground. Tails and Cream aided in the gathering of speed.

"_YES._" Sonic said louder, and more importantly, moving out of the way.

Taking Sonic's great tip, Blaze and Shadow moved out of the way, leaving Silver standing in the middle.

"Oh no!" Silver cried as he began sprinting away from the castle and that flying arsenal as fast as he could.

"OH _YES!_" Sonic cheered.

Omega began to unleash heaven's wrath, and the aim was slowly adjusting toward Silver. Silver swerved and swayed to avoid missiles and gatling gunfire. As he blew apart the main gate with his psychic powers, the guardsman took out a pistol, but as the quaking explosions of Omega's guns passed, he did not want to put a foot outside the post until he heard not a single sound.

Silver had ran toward the sidewalk, nearby stores. Pedestrians had cleared the streets at the sound of gunfire. Rouge ordered Omega to lighten up on the explosives around there, leaving the robot only with his machine guns. And watching from the gates was Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze. Amy was joining the trio.

"Did you see that!" Amy cried. "Cream and Tails were helping Rouge with that, too!"

"That was amazing." Sonic said. "That was just..."

"Simply _fantastic_." Blaze completed. "However I worry about property damage."

"I've seen Omega do a lot of things," Shadow began. "But _that_, was out of nowhere. Now, let's see if he thinks it's a good idea to use this thrusters to home in and slam him."

Sonic laughed, and began running. "Come on! I ain't missing this! Follow the Valkyrie!"

Amy ran after him without a second thought, and Shadow slowly began to skate after them, while Blaze noticed something blown aside, its blue glimmer unmistakable. She walked over to the gem, and smiled. Blaze picked up the blue Sol Emerald, and smiled. "Two down," She said to herself, smiling. "... five to go..." Her smile faded. Pocketing it, she quickly made her way through town, locating and following the flying rabbit, two-tailed fox, and bat carrying a robot of immense destruction currently causing havoc trying to kill a psychokinetic prince of a foreign nation to a classic orchestrated song. She may not know the streets as well as she should, but she'll be damned if she's not able to find them.

* * *

><p>Prince Silver muttered curses under his breath as he fled ludicrously from the insane enemy above. The robot had bore no regard for the destruction to the city he was causing, which confused Silver greatly, but the Prince realized now was no time to ponder such quandaries. He was barely keeping his garb on and the bag in his control while he mimicked a motorcycle whilst turning around corners. He had to use his hands to help him back to his feet every couple of seconds, as explosions a dozen feet behind him constantly shook the ground. He had no idea where he wanted to go, but in front of him was a fence blocking off a park. Perhaps the trees could shake him off?<p>

"Shit SHIT shit SHIT shit SHIIIT" Quoth the Prince in a well paced manner. And if you haven't caught the fact that every time I write that stupid sentences were said in a calm, collected manner when everything about it says otherwise, maybe you should start noticing. Silver propelled himself over a fence into the park, and ran along a small brook, partially covered by trees.

Meanwhile above, the girls were going over Omega's current performance.

"Omega!" Cream chastised. "Look at what you're doing!"

"Yeah, actually aim from now on, okay?" Rouge added.

"CRITICISM ACCEPTED." Omega stated. "ACTIVATING HEAT SENSOR."

Omega's heat sensor switched on, turning everything into a red and black color scheme, except for hot objects, which appeared white. He noticed a white blob moving alongside a stream, and executed maniacal_laughter .exe as he opened fire. In reaction, Silver scrambled, moving in a zig zag formation, before diving under a bridge. A well placed missile, a rarity for Omega, destroyed the overhead cover of the bridge. The powerful robot was surprised to not see anything there.

"SCANNING... SCANNING..." Omega scanned the area, and didn't seem to find him. "TARGET NOT FOUND. REQUESTING GROUND DEPLOYMENT."

Rouge nodded. "Request accepted." She turned to Cream and Tails. "Let go, kids."

They all let go of Omega, who activated his thrusters, essentially becoming a one ton guided missile that could get up and shoot people. For the first few moments, he simply cruised, looking around for that white hedgehog, but at the lack of his face, he turned and slammed into a bunch of trees to slow himself down.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze all hopped over the fence, and were greeted by Rouge, Cream, and Tails.

"Does that robot factor in collateral damage?" Blaze interrogated Rouge.

Rouge shook her head. "No, but I think that was helpful for once. I think we got him."

"No, you didn't." Tails said, pointing in a direction.

The brook lead into a small pond, which as of the moment Silver just managed to avoid drowning in. Silver took a dive into the cold water and barely made it to the pond's shore with enough air. He was quickly getting onto his feet and making his way for the public restrooms.

Sonic quickly gave chase, followed by everyone else. Silver saw them coming, and ran as quick as he could for the restrooms, while Sonic got closer by the second. The blue blur almost had him, when Silver slammed the men's room door on his face. Sonic stumbled back, rubbing his nose. With haste, he slammed the door open, just in time to see a green flash from the first stall. He made his way just inside the stall, and waited for Omega to make his way in through the tiny doorway.

"Okay, let's catch this dude this time." Sonic said, turning to the portal hovering just above the toilet. "And not blow him to pieces, because I want to know what his problem is." With a breath in, Sonic shouted "Let's go!" and jumped in the portal.

…

A man was taking refuge from the outside battlefield in Casinopolis, which had just opened only moments before. G.U.N. had the current area secure, for now, and strangely enough Casinopolis had not stopped business. Before he could sit down at a Texas Hold 'em table for a couple hours while the war that raged outside resolved itself, he had to freshen up. On his way to the nearest restroom, he saw a young white hedgehog run by. He seemed to match a description, but he didn't quite know who. Disregarding the rushing anthro, he walked into the men's restroom, and marveled at how clean it was as he went over to the nearest urinal.

He heard a thud come from one of the stalls, along with some mumbling. Thinking someone just started to lean against the door, he continued draining Big Joe and the twins. But then came another thud, and he spoke up.

"Ow!" The voice said. "Give me some spac- "

He's heard that voice before. Was that-

Before he could even think of continuing the thought, another bang against the door.

A female voice spoke up. "Ugh, back off, will-"

Then came a surge of noise from within the first stall.

"Stop ramming us!" The voice cried out.

"Shut up," said the first voice. "Guys, get the hell back in there, we don't have room for our _huge heads_ in here."

"ORDER ACKNOWLEDGED." A robot voice said.

"He said _shut up_, this is a _public_ bathroom." Another man's voice said in a gravely tone. "The men's one, I'm sure."

"Ah!" Shrieked a little girl. "Don't push me!"

"Well get back in there," the first voice said. "I need to stop getting crushed and open this _friggin' door._"

The thought of them leaving the stall was the point where he realized he was done. He hurriedly stuffed his mounted machine gun away and zipped back up his pantaloons, and he heard the door open.

The man at the urinal looked just in time to see a blue hedgehog hero that saved the world a dozen times walk out of the stall, into an awkward locked stare.

Right after, his number one fan that on any day of the week is going head over heels for him came out and hugged his arm, before freezing at the sight of the man.

And then a fire-controlling cat he met maybe twice or thrice to help him save two worlds came out with her tail between her legs and hands covering her face. Then his best buddy with two tails, a black doppleganger of the hero, a six year old rabbit girl, a big busted bat, and a giant robot, all came out from a single bathroom stall.

Oh boy, the first thing he was going to do when he gets home is _blog about it._

"Hey, uh, did you see where a white hedgehog run out of here, by any chance?" Sonic asked.

"_Oh God, there's more?" _was the first thought to cross the man's mind. The man blinked in silence for a second, attempting to grasp the situation again. "... Um, yeah, he was making his way to the door..."

"Okay then." Sonic nodded. He turned his head to the others. "Let's go guys."

"Mister Sonic," Cream jogged up to his side. "I don't have Cheese, plus fighting is bad, so I don't want to fig-"

"Wait, before you go..."

"Oh come on, what?"

"... Is the toilet in there, like... The Doctor's police box, or something?"

…

Silver threw open the doors of the Casino, and just as he thought since he was not near Sonic, weird things cannot happen. But the first thing he noticed outside is himself.

"Oh, hello." The Silver native to this dimension greeted. "Hey pal, do you mind helping me out? I'm being chased by this guy, and I was thinking maybe we could talk some sense into him, or talk sense out of-"

Prince Silver shook his head. "Well sorry, weird alternative-dimension me, but I'm afraid my situation's got you beat eightfold, and I although I'd love to-"

"What the hell?"

The two white hedgehogs turned to the mind-boggled red echidna.

The moment of pause created by the echidna was quickly broken by the Prince.

"As I was saying," He began again. "Although I'd love to figure out what's going on with you, sadly, I've GOTTA GO."

The Native Silver was disappointed. "But-"

"_FAST._"

Promptly, Prince Silver ran right by Knuckles, who let him by, knowing that he wasn't the Silver he was after. On his way out, he threw a bus down the street to block the only way out of the boxed in plaza. Knuckles turned to the remaining Silver.

"Wait, wait! Maybe we can figure it out!" Silver desperately suggested to the skeptical knucklehead who has since begun acknowledging his own gullibility due to his friend's advice. "You said I stole your emerald, but that OTHER guy seems more likely than me-"

"Hey Knuckles!"

Silver turned and saw seven people. The eighth must still be inside. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and... _Blaze?_

"Get that fake hedgehog."

Silver's survival instinct kicked in immediately, as all other forms of thought and logic seemed to have left the building on holiday. Knuckles not going to let this Silver go. Actually, he was ready to accomplish Sonic's request of "getting that fake hedgehog" with immense pleasure.

But that's when a robot fist came out of nowhere and sent Knuckles into a building.

"OHOHOHOHO!" Said the round, mustachioed pilot of the machine. "Oh no you _DON'T!_"

* * *

><p>Alright, I am loving how this is turning out. All the sudden burst of attention this story has gotten this month helped me pick up the pace and keep the same quality as before: what really sets this chapter out from the others is how long I've had these ideas in my head and how long I've been wanting to put them into existence, and then I got this miracle godsend of an idea for this chapter on the spot (hint: chicks dig giant robots), so really this is the best I've been feeling about this story since it began. Work is slow, but I'm sure as hell am going to bring up the pace.<p>

One more thing, something I want to address:

**FlameUser64: Why the sudden language in the author's note?**

At the time, I was watching a lot of Egoraptor stuff, plus it wasn't a serious message, so I thought whatever, let's go with it.

ONE MORE THING:

**gameloverx: are u a guy or a girl?****  
><strong>

My handle is CAPTAIN._COMBAT. __BEARD._What, did I NOT stealcome up with the most masculine username imaginable? It's gonna take me a while to think of something manlier than this.

All that said, thanks again for all the motivation, it's giving me some momentum.

_JACKIIIIE!_ ONE MO_O_ORE THING:

I'd like to shamelessly plug in something else: I made a forum for Fanfic talk called **Fanfiction General**. Right now, it's on the last page of the forum list because nothing is there on it. I made it so people could talk about stories, ask for recommendations, things like that.


	7. Chapter 6: Doctor When?

**Chapter 6: Doctor When?**

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted at the robot that smashed Knuckles into the building.

The machine that had quite literally appeared out of thin air turned to Sonic. It was in the same vein as a large Eggman Robo, but smaller, and more lean. In place of its head was a glass cockpit covering the pilot, mounted in his Eggmobile.

"No, Eggman _Nega!_" Eggman Nega corrected. "Eggman's cooking up a surprise for you in Pumpkin Hill, and he told me to give him some time..."

Sonic gestured to all of those around him. "Sorry, but if he's looking for thirty seconds, he's not gonna get that!"

"But you don't get it Sonic." Eggman Nega replied, a smirk stretching across his face. "I have plenty of time. My machine works wonders..."

Knuckles climbed out of the wall, angry. "Yeah, I can tell it's a pretty decent robot; _it doesn't look a thing like you._"

The old Doctor shook his head. "Predictable jokes aside, allow me to introduce it. BEHOLD!"

Within the second, another–no, the exact same–machine appeared from thin air with a bright red flash. It looked like it had been damaged, and had repairs done on it. And then another, with more repairs done. These repairs were not perfection; parts were sticking out. All were piloted by Eggman Nega, from different points in his perceived lifespan.

"_THE EGG CHRONOS!_" The three doctors cheered in unison.

"... Huh? Only three?" The original, current Eggman Nega was confused by the lack of a battalion of Egg Chronos. "I must make short work of you."

"... _Welp._" Sonic summed up everyone's reactions loudly, his lips closing causing the 'p' at the end. "_A TIME TRAVELING MACHINE. _I have to say, you might have actually done something good for the world once, Eggmen. Tell ya what, when I get done trashing it, I could tear it apart and get that doohickey-"

"I've got this one, blabbermouth." Knuckles shut Sonic up. He looked at the three machines. "Silver is probably halfway across this warzone of a town by now, with information on where MY EMERALD is," Knuckles pointed at the doctor behind the glass. "And it's all because of you!"

"Oh? I'm sorry, but I'm not involved in that." Nega retorted.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. You Eggmen won't fool me a third time!" Knuckles shouted at them.

"Except it'd be the fourth," Sonic whispered to the party.

"And that's my job." Rouge joked under her breath.

"You're both lucky he didn't hear that." Shadow commented.

Eggman Nega shook his head. "Oh, I was hoping I'd have the joy of tricking you, just like the other doctor told me ALL about!"

Another Nega joined the conversation. "But we'll have so much fun wrecking you, and by we–"

"–I mean me, myself, and I!" The latest Nega finished.

Knuckles exploded. "I'm glad I'll be smashing your machine three times over! I've had enough of this sci-fi mumbo-jumbo!"

Knuckles ran at the original Egg Chronos, and spin-jumped into the air. The front-flipping he was doing gave him plenty of momentum for him to uncurl and slam his fist into the machine's chest. On a larger mech, this probably wouldn't have worked, but the Egg Chronos was small enough to stumble back. When Knuckles landed, he just noticed another fist coming at him from above. He ran to avoid that, and barely sidestepped out of the way from a large foot trying to stomp him.

"Maybe this is a good time to ask." Shadow said. He turned to Sonic. "How did you do that!?"

"What?" Sonic asked, legitimately clueless.

Shadow looked at him slightly frustrated. "That dagger and sword thing."

Sonic was embarrassingly reminded that he had done that in front of his friends. Trying to come up with a decent response, he played with his fingers, before finally answering. "I read a book."

Knuckles ran at the wall and jumped onto it. He climbed to the second story in a few seconds, and looked back. The robots were advancing, in a way that had left them in a curved line. Smiling, he leapt from the wall, and began to glide toward the closest Egg Chronos. It reared its hand back, and swiped at Knuckles. Knuckles barrel rolled to the right and landed on a side of the machine's glass cock pit, sliding around it. He was sliding off when Knuckles jumped off and sent a fist into the Egg Chronos just next to it, creating a crack across the cockpit glass. Bouncing off that one, he landed a good punch on the Chronos. As the robot began to fall over, Knuckles jumped off into the air.

At his current height, Knuckles was out of reach from the robots. Exploiting this opportunity, he began to glide over to the last machine, and with a spin, he began plummeting down upon the Egg Chronos. The strike cracked the glass, and Knuckles bounced to the ground away from it. Each Egg Chronos now had a crack in the glass protecting Eggman Nega from Knuckles' wrath.

"... A book?" Shadow said, in disbelief.

"Yep." Sonic answered. Sonic's attention was focused primarily on the fight. "Woah, did you see what Knuckles just did?"

Shadow was uninterested in that, as his full interest was. "... What _kind _of book?"

Sonic glanced about nervously before answering. "... A good book. Very immersive."

Knuckles turned to the Eggmen, all standing straight and angry about the damage.

"I knew I should have put a metal dome on this." Eggman Nega growled. "I guess I was expecting Sonic to not be able to reach up here."

Knuckles refused to toss some banter back, as he ran up to the most recent Egg Chronos machine, and began slamming his knuckles at its ankles. Nega, thoroughly worried, tried stomping back and forth. The second Egg Chronos came and was priming a punch at Knuckles.

"No!" The Nega from the third Egg Chronos cried.

Knuckles saw the fist coming and narrowly dodged it. The fist, unable to be stopped, sunk itself into the ankle of the first Egg-Chrono. The robot slowly began to collapse without a foot, with the pilots bickering as Knuckles made it out.

"Be more careful!" The third Eggman Nega chastised.

"I tried to eliminate the problem. Seems he's a bigger threat than expected." The second Eggman Nega reasoned.

"It's not like it matters," The first, downed Eggman Nega said, preparing his machine. "I'll just go back in time, repair the machine, and return!"

Knuckles was alerted by this, and began running toward the cockpit. He was not going to get away. But, before the spiked fist of Knuckles' knuckles could find itself in a scrambled Egg, the machine in its entirety flashed in a near blinding red light. A second later when Knuckles regained his senses, the machine had vanished, transported to a different time.

"How thoroughly did you read this book?" Shadow continued the interrogation.

"Do the time traveling giant robots even phase you?"

"_Answer the question._"

"Uh... I flipped through the book a couple _(hundred) _times, so I probably picked up a thing or two."

Knuckles turned to the two remaining Egg Chronos. "I should have to say, it took me a long time to find the right parts for the ankle. Thankfully, time is always on my side."

"Spare me details on how it works, please."

"Oh, you _wish._" Eggman Nega chuckled, pulling out a large tome of a book he had written on the subject, while still maintaining control of the machine.

Shouting "Oh no you don't!" as he went, Knuckles leapt at the Egg Chronos, seeking to tear the machine apart from the imperfections in the repairs. With a mighty punch, the echidna sunk his fist into the machine through a small opening, his large hand widening it greatly. Knuckles placed his two feet on the Egg Chronos, and began prying the metal off of the robot. With little effort, the metal plating was torn off, revealing a fragile frame.

Knuckles grinned as he jumped off, ready to jump back and strike from the inside, when he heard a sound. A familiar sound, of rockets being launched. Turning in time to see the rockets coming at him, Knuckles tried jumping back but was propelled into the bus, and the angle he hit the bus caused him to spin to the ground.

"Have you read a book on how to destroy a giant time traveling robot?" Shadow asked.

"Dude, do you remember a thing from that birthday party?" Sonic retorted. "That said, "How to Destroy a Giant Robot" is my autobiography. And if that was some badly disguised suggestion to help him, he can handle himself. Dude's got muscle like kevlar."

"Being his rival, I bet Rouge has certain something to counter it." Blaze remarked.

The latest Egg Chronos marched forward next to the former Egg Chronos, with its hidden missile compartment that was added in the recent repairs smoking. "Come on, let's turn this red runt into a smear."

Knuckles jumped to his feet. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to put me down!"

The senior Egg Chronos prepared for impact it had witnessed through the eyes of the earlier Egg Chronos. Knuckles ran, and grabbed the piece of metal from the ground, jumped up to the stomach and swung it. The panel tore apart the badly repaired exterior and exposed the core. Next to the core was an ominous, passive red glow. While being satisfied with his work, the Echidna heard the other Egg Chronos try to stomp on him. Knuckles dodged just in time, and threw the metal plate back at the Egg Chronos, damaging it severely.

"Grrrrr, you DAMNABLE LITTLE-" Eggman Nega caught himself. "Oh, my. Apologies for the explosion. It's _very _unlike me."

Sonic chuckled, looking around to see indifferent faces. With a shocked look on his face, he wondered if anyone else actually got that joke Blaze made. The expression became more severely written across his face when he realized Blaze made a joke.

The battered Egg Chronos once again readied its missiles. Knuckles turned, and as he did the missiles were launched, and homed in on him. There were a lot of missiles this time, at least nine. He acted quickly, and ran up to the Egg Chronos, and jumped onto its skeleton of a torso, so that he was standing right in front of the engine of the machine.

"What? No! Get off!" Eggman Nega boomed, slamming his fist on the control panel.

Knuckles did as he was told. The guardian of the Master Emerald leaped off the Egg Chronos just before the rockets would have made contact. They flew into the machine and nailed its engine. The massive explosion following was loud, the air was filled with smoke for at least thirty feet around, and there was a bright red glimmer, not a flash, but it disappeared in time.

The Eggmobile popped out from the smoke and into sight, with its pilot fairly disappointed.

"Blast, another fine creation, destroyed." Eggman Nega growled his laments as he got control of his Eggmobile. "If it weren't for you, they would have been dead."

Knuckles smirked (whilst being careful not to chuckle, as that would only rouse comments from Sonic), thinking he had won the battle.

"You'll regret this." Eggman Nega called out, before making his leave.

_Twip_

Rouge's ears perked up. She turned to Tails, who was holding some sort of gun.

"What is that?" The bat asked.

Tails smiled. "A tracking device. Specifically, just the launcher. The tracker is on Nega now, so we can be sure if he's going to Pumpkin Hill, and where to next."

Rouge smiled slyly, putting her hand on his head and leaning on it. "Oh, clever."

A moment later, Knuckles was reminded the battle was not yet over. The last remaining Egg Chronos–second in its chronology–ran and jumped at Knuckles. The body-slam was successful, to an extent, as Knuckles was hit but knocked out from underneath the large robot. Knuckles quickly got up to his feet, but the Egg Chronos was much slower. Knuckles used its slow ascension to sprint toward it.

When the Egg Chronos was on its side, Knuckles punched it. The large machine was blown back, and when it landed it started to roll around the corner. Knuckles quickly followed it around the corner, where it tried to sit upright. Before the Echidna could get another attack off, though, Eggman Nega had prepared. With a massive, blinding flash of red, it disappeared before Knuckles could get the last hit.

The echidna stared at where the Egg Chronos once was. It was obviously there, the indenting on the ground proved it. And in a flash, it was gone. He knew Eggman was crafty, but this time travel stuff was too much for Knuckles to completely grasp. Unsatisfied, Knuckles went around the corner, and just now really took into account how many were in Sonic's party.

"Woah." Knuckles gasped. "This is too many people for just a normal Eggman tussle. What's going on?" Knuckles asked, while Sonic climbed on top of the skeletal remains of the destroyed Egg Chronos. He had very special ideas in his mind.

"It's a lot, but I guess I can explain." Tails said, while Sonic tossed out destroyed technology and bits of metal from the robot carcass.

"Someone tried to kill Blaze in her world yesterday, someone who was the prince of a rival nation. She chased him into the ocean where she was sent to our world. We picked up something offshore, and wanted to get a look at it when Rouge came along and took a single emerald, so that Shadow and Omega can come in and get the readings from my computer.

"However, while we were chasing down Rouge, Shadow and Omega were knocked out by the prince, who took the rest of the emeralds. Rouge decided to go home while we dealt with Shadow and Omega, but on the way back she saw the assassin with the emeralds. She beat him, and he opened a portal to Blaze's world."

"Huh? I thought you said you couldn't power something like that without both sets of emeralds." Knuckles asked.

Tails nodded. "Well, he must have something on the inside. So we went into her dimension, searched all day today, and found him just a few minutes ago. I didn't suspect the prince would be Silver..."

Knuckles' eyebrows rose. "Wait, Silver?"

"Yeah, Silver is apparently the prince of another nation in Blaze's world, as well as her would-be assassin. Which is strange, because I thought he was from the future."

"Hey, I saw-"

"AHA!"

Everyone turned to Sonic, climbing out of the Egg Chronos. He held high above his head, a red motherboard chip, flashing a red tinted light.

"This must be that time travel chip thing!" Sonic cheered. "If we could fix this thing up, we could make our own time travel... thingamajig."

"Wait a minute..." Tails slowly walked up to it. He took the motherboard from his hands, and examined the red piece of technology. It had a familiar air to it. The design was very familiar, yet seemed different. The color was the primary difference between it and what he found a familiarity with, but what? What was it...

Tails' namesake tails shot upright as he made the shocking realization as people gathered around.

"Sonic, doesn't this look familiar to you?" Tails asked his best friend.

Sonic was a bit puzzled. "Hm? Tails, you can freshen my memory now."

Tails jogged his memory. "Well, remember how I tried making that dimension traveling machine, that didn't quite work out right?"

It took Sonic a quick moment. "Oh, yeah. Tried making it so that you wouldn't be technologically far behind the Eggmen. That was a weird experience."

Blaze's eyebrows rose, and grew very curious. "What happened? What did you see?"

Sonic turned to the cat. "Things." This answer was not satisfying, but she didn't want to pry.

"Well, this looks structurally similar to that other chip! It's slightly different in places, but that's probably because it's perfected!" Tails exclaimed.

"Cool. Is there somewhere awesome you want to go with this?" Sonic asked.

Tails grinned. "I still have the machine you used. If I were to replace the chip, and make a few adjustments..."

"... oh my god." Any hints at Sonic having maturity went down the drain as he pleaded. "CAN WE PUT IT IN A _DELOREAN!?_"

Tails was immensely disappointed as well, but quickly tried to make it up to him. "No, I don't think we could, but we could get that other machine sending you through time in an hour!"

Sonic's shoulders slumped. "Aw. Ah well."

Shadow felt the need to interject. "This is all interesting, but what use would you have for a time machine?"

Sonic and Tails both stared at Shadow. Sonic's face was carrying a facial expression that presumed he was an android that hates fun. "It's a time machine!" They answered in unison.

"You saw what that Egg Chronos did, didn't you?" Sonic began to rationalize. "It had 3 different selves from 3 different points in time. We could have a whole army of ME curbstomping Eggman in seconds every invasion. And when I get bored afterward, I would just say "hey I'm bored let me go back in time and help myself" thus becoming my own army. How is that not a decent use!?"

Shadow put his face in his hand. "I would rather not have this adventure be _extremely _confusing and incomprehensible by throwing time jumping into consideration."

"Don't worry man, I'll probably just do what I just explained." Sonic assured. "Can't really promise if the Eggmen have nothing else in store, though. Probably do, though."

"It says that it's experimental." Tails stated, examining the red chip.

"Oh, well there ya have it."

Cream poked her head outside the door, and went to join the group. Noticing a total of eight others, Knuckles thought it was finally time to spit it out. "Hey Sonic, I think I have something you want to know."

"Hm?" Sonic acknowledged his red friend.

Knuckles took a breath in, and began to explain. "While you were doing... whatever you were doing, my Master Emerald was stolen by Silver. He got away, but I found him running around in this city. I chased him for hours, and eventually got him caught here, but then... _another Silver_ came running out of Casinopolis."

Tails was intrigued. "What?"

"_Here we go,_" Shadow groaned, his fears becoming real.

"They didn't even question each other. The Silver _I_ was chasing asked the other Silver for help. The _other _Silver, holding a bag, explained he has no idea what was going on, but he was running from eight people, so he just left. I didn't touch him because I knew which one I was after." Knuckles explained.

There was a moment of silence.

Blaze slapped her forehead.

Sonic sympathized. "That's actually kinda okay, since you were left out of the loop. But seriously, you let him get away with the Sol Emeralds!"

"Hey, he wasn't my problem." Knuckles reasoned. "I was chasing after the one that stole my emerald."

Blaze took her head from her hand, a slightly agitated look across her face. "I hope you now realize you were wrong about your assumption this whole time."

Knuckles was alerted. "Look cat woman, I SAW Silver take my Emerald! If I knew there were two Silvers, I would have stopped them!"

"He has a point." Tails came in. "If you knew that Silver was a prince in your dimension when you he appeared at Sonic's party, why didn't you say anything when one from the future came along?"

Blaze kept the slightly agitated look on. The cat's eyes darted about the faces of her acquaintances, as if looking for something to use. She refused to say anything, but perhaps that was because there was not much she could. Finished darting her eyes about, she looked down, her expression sagging down with it, defeated. She didn't know.

Disappointed, Sonic decided it was time to move back on topic. "Well, if we want to see if this time thing still works, we have to get back to the workshop for it. I also have a Chaos Emerald in my apartment, so we can stop there to get it."

"Really? Thanks for being prepared!" Tails said enthusiastically. "Let's go get it."

* * *

><p>"I... screwed up."<p>

"What have you been doing? You sound breathless."

"It happened so fast. I tried getting her, but then... a giant robot appeared. I thought it was flying by itself, but it was held up by a bat, rabbit, and the two tailed fox."

"... Omega...! I _hate _that traitorous robot. That bat can never be trusted, as well."

"I also... dropped a Sol Emerald."

"What!?"

"I'm sure you would too, if quaking guns rattled you every step you took. That- that _thing _was scary!"

"Grr... Oh, by the by, where are you?"

"Still in Station Square. In a dumpster, in an alleyway."

"Never a detail spared. I like that. Well, there should be a Chaos Emerald in your vicinity. Acquiring it should have you break even, and put a real thorn in their side if we keep a hold of it. It's very high up off the ground, however; I hope you don't mind climbing twenty stories."

"Pssh, I can fly up that."

"I'd also like to inform you that you'll be breaking into Sonic's apartment."

"Wait, what?"

"_You heard me._"

"If you know where Sonic's apartment is, why haven't you, y'know, gassed him or something?"

"I have standards. I take pleasure in having bested others for something, instead of taking things from those sleeping."

"..."

"I'm trying to conquer the world, not destroy it. There's glory in victory, not _assassination_."

"Do you want this Emerald or not?"

"Yes, I have other matters to attend to. Nega is calling in, confirming a loss of the prototype Egg Chronos, as well as its unique time travel chip. It's very expensive to make, despite being not much different than the dimensional chip."

"How different?"

"The matter shouldn't concern you, but I'll fill you in as much as you can comprehend: the major difference is the fact that it is red."

"What does color have to do with it?"

"I _don't know either!_ The space chip is structurally the _exact same thing_ as the time chip. It seems making it red is all the difference. And even then, it's not a hundred percent success rate."

"Why?"

"I said, I don't know! Now quit wasting time! You're against the fastest thing alive, and we can't change that alive part if we don't have the emeralds. The location should be on the radar, with a number indicating distance upward or downward."

"Got it."

Silver climbed out of the dumpster in the alleyway, careful not to make noise. G.U.N. was getting their heads together, and the invasion of Station Square wasn't meant to last. It was a delay, and a set-up to get them on the alert for a much different attack that was coming their way. Silver looked at the device on his wrist; something the Eggmen had given him. It was a communicator, a Chaos and Sol Emerald locator, and primarily a Dimension-hopping device. It had the ability to warp the user to the corresponding spot in the opposite dimension. Because of the Eggmen's perceived mastery of space-travel, the chip in his wrist device was much smaller than the prototype red time-travel chip. He saw the blip over to his right. He began making his way toward the Chaos Emerald.

* * *

><p>Sonic and the group made their way though Station Square toward Sonic's apartment. G.U.N. really managed to wrap their heads around the situation very nicely, as all that was left were straggling robots. Sonic himself wasn't too quick to admit they were significantly helping, but they had record-breaking control over the situation, if the Dark squad was right. Blaze informed the rest that Silver had dropped a Sol Emerald while running away, raising their count to two. The group of anthros were talking about the unnecessary size of the group as they almost reached their destination.<p>

"Yeah, I think nine of us is too much of a crowd." Tails said. The two tailed fox looked toward Shadow, Rouge, and Omega. "Why are you still following us? You can leave."

Rouge decided she'd come up with a reason that wasn't Emeralds. "Well-"

"UPDATED ORDERS." Omega answered swiftly.

Shadow nodded. "That, and, I have my reasons to stay."

Sonic stopped.

"Why's that?" Blaze asked.

"Well, I probably should say." Shadow said. "Since Sonic-"

"Hey!" Sonic shouted upward, his head cocked at an angle that had to hurt whatever he had for a neck. "There he is again!"

Everyone's heads turned, and there he was, ascending the side fire escape. Silver was almost stunned at his discovery, but in both panic and weariness from using this telekinesis to levitate himself up, he quickly ran up the metal stairs. The resident of the apartment building could tell Silver was getting close to his room, and although he was experienced in running up walls, he was not his best without the aid of ramps. He wouldn't be able to get up there before Silver got into his room, which would be an insult to his title of fastest thing alive.

"Guys!" Sonic shouted out, running up next to the escape. "I can't just sprint straight up twenty floors! Someone give me a boost."

After a moment of almost uncomfortable silence, and contained laughter, Sonic was picked up by his top-middle quill and his tail.

"Alright, one express elevator trip, coming right up..." Knuckles said in an almost sinister manner.

Sonic gulped in horror as he was reared back. _NOT AGAIN._

With Knuckles proper strength, the echidna swung Sonic around in a full circle before propelling him up at the building at immense speed. The speed could only be picked up when Sonic got his senses together and ran up the building. He hated being thrown by Knuckles. There was a short list of things Sonic wished he had never done, and letting Knuckles use the hedgehog's person to pummel massive blocks of solid stone to oblivion was one of them.

When he reached a good height, Sonic kicked off the wall, and locked his eyes onto Silver. As Sonic approached the height, gravity was slowing him down. Silver had just made it to the twentieth floor, and had to make his way over toward the window on the other side of the scaffold, when Sonic had came up, and spinballed right at his back.

Silver stumbled away, surprised and exhausted. He turned around in time to be on the receiving end of a quick left handed punch. It was followed by two more quick punches, pushing him back to the railing. Sonic kept his left hand in his face.

"Yaah," Sonic began, sending a powerful punch at Silver.

Unable to see because of Sonic's hand, Silver acknowledged the verbal warning and put his hands up, but his real strength was in his telekinesis. His hands failed to block the powerful punch sent right at his cheek, and he began to tumble over the railing.

"HAA-_TAAAAA~_!" Sonic cried out, very satisfied with how perfectly it translated from in his head to out his mouth.

Silver fell from the fire escape, and flailed around for a moment before bringing up his wrist device. With a press of a button, he was warped into the Sol Dimension. Sonic didn't worry about Silver after that, though. Twenty stories wasn't _that_ nasty a fall, for him at least. I mean, he's had worse.

Sonic smiled while walking over to the side closer to the street, and gave a thumbs up to his friends. Tails was already halfway to him, and Amy, Blaze, and Shadow were just beginning to climb up the fire escape. Seeing as night was slowly beginning to fall, and they just got an emerald not so long ago, Sonic shouted below to his friends.

"HEY! LET'S NOT CHASE HIM! LET ME GRAB THIS EMERALD AND WE'LL HEAD TO TAILS' WORKSHOP!" Sonic cried out to those below.

Sonic began to walk over to his window. The taped on doctored image featuring his rotting corpse made him chuckle at how well it fit, and how much Amy would be distressed–if it was the first time he pulled tricks like this. The fact that she wouldn't be surprised was irritating because she needs to get the message that he wanted her to knock on the _door_ next time. Throwing pebbles, screws, and the like at a window from a fire escape is not nearly as sappy, heartwarming, or dare-he-say _romantic_ as it is from the more traditional ground. It is kind of pitiful, actually.

The owner of the apartment lifted the window just in time to spare the explanation to Tails, who just got on the floor. Sonic ushered his two-tailed friend into his apartment as he climbed through the window. His high speeds allowed Sonic to take the picture off the window and leave it face down on a dresser before Tails got there.

As Tails climbed through the window. "Sonic, I think there's enough posters on your wall."

"That's why I put some on the ceiling." Sonic remarked. Tails had been into Sonic's apartment a few times before, and every time he comes back, there's more things on his wall. Tails understood why he did this, and got used to it.

Sonic scratched his chin, walking toward his bedside dressers. "... Now where'd I put that thing...?" Sonic began searching his dressers, filled with random things because he only wore socks, shoes, and gloves. Occasionally, he wore coats, suits, and such, which were kept in his closet.

"Hey, why do you have that?" Tails said. Sonic looked to see him looking at a poster, featuring an absurdly muscular man with bullet-sized welts in his chest, a large face with an angled chin, and thick, massive eyebrows. This character's name was Kenshiro, from the anime "Fist of the North Star". "And no Gurren Lagann?"

"You know it's my favorite anime." Sonic answered. "And I dropped Gurren Lagann when the best character on the show died. Heck, I've even been practicing Ken's technique."

"... you _what._"

"Accuracy is crap, though, and I don't have his muscles..."

At that moment Blaze came up to the window after almost walking right past it. She paused at the window, looking around the eccentric room with curiosity written all over her face as she sat and threw her legs into the windowsill. Shadow came up behind her, merely raising an eyebrow, and behind him Amy, grown as accustomed to the room as Tails.

His walls were over-encumbered with pictures, posters, and art. Pictures of faraway lands which he traveled to, posters of bands Sonic was a fan of, and stylistic art all completely covered the walls, making their original color unidentifiable. There were pictures of him rushing down a sloped street from a familiar massive truck, an Eggman fortress located within a pyramid, and of the Earth from behind dusty, dirty glass. The last two seemed to have been taken by Sonic himself, while the first must have been acquired from a bystander lucky enough to have his camera out at the time, be in position to take a picture, and within range of something to dive into for safety.

"What's with all this, Sonic?" Blaze asked.

Sonic gave a quick glance at the cat. "Memorabilia, of all the places I've been. Speaking of which..." Sonic stopped, and pulled off his shoe with his other foot, and withdrew from it a postcard. He held it up to her. On it, was a picture of the massive castle from the front gates. "My first trinket from another world." He placed it on the counter top, kicking his foot back into the shoe. "The stuff I get from places usually isn't big enough to get on my wall, so I come back for larger stuff later. There's literally only one place I haven't gotten anything from that I've been."

Tails and Amy were silent. They knew his apartment well enough to not really say anything, and Amy never even used the door. The newcomers to the blue blur's place noticed Tails looking up at the ceiling, and when they followed his eyes, they discovered not even the ceiling was spared from complete obscurity. All along the ceiling, was pictures of Sonic with those he's met in his life. The images seemed to start at what Sonic called "the Chaos incident", with a group shot of almost all those involved; Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were all there, but a robot had gone missing, and Big was off fishing in the background. There was also images of when he first met Cream, Blaze, some fairie dog thing that Shadow and Blaze had trouble identifying, and many others. The entire room seemed to be an autobiography, something the both of them didn't expect Sonic to bother doing.

Having grown very interested in his life, Blaze couldn't resist asking when she recalled there was one place he didn't get anything from.

"And where would that be?"

Sonic stopped, but only for a second. He continued digging through his piles of junk, knowing exactly where the Chaos Emerald was.

"My hometown." Sonic answered. "... Aha!"

Immediately after, Sonic withdrew the Chaos Emerald, that shared the same color of his fur. "Alright, we're done here. Let's go to the workshop for the night, tomorrow's gonna be big, I can smell it!"

"It's going to be catastrophic," Shadow guessed. "Mostly likely because of your will to pull these time shenanigans."

Sonic smiled, hopping out the window. "That just makes it all the more fun. Let's go-"

"Wait!" Shadow shouted.

"Oh, _what!?_" Sonic said.

"When was the last time you checked your voice mail?"

Fed up with with answering even more of Shadow's questions, Sonic stormed down the fire escape. The others soon followed.

When the five got down, they saw the very distinct and unmistakable Chaotix, composing of Vector, Charmy, and Espio conversing with their group. Vector and Charmy were covered in trash, while Espio had a rather disgusted look on his face because of their stench. Cream was escatic, as she had been reunited with Cheese.

"All in a day's work!" Vector gloated, somehow completely ignoring the stench he was drenched with. "Anything else we can help you with while we're here?"

Espio shook his head. "Vector, I don't-"

"Hey guys!" Sonic greeted them. "We have a case for you to crack. There's apparently two Silvers running about. We don't really know what their deal is, and I heard Espio is pretty okay with Silver, so maybe you could find out what's with them?"

Their eyes turned to Espio, and they all noticed that he was almost uncharacteristically irritated.

"The things I put up with," Espio breathed as he rested his face in the palm of his hand. He wanted a vacation, but that would be against his code. After a moment, Espio looked back at Sonic. "If I have the chance to meet either of his personas, I will look into it, but for now, I need an _aspirin_..."

* * *

><p>Tails' workshop was almost overcrowded, as it was most certainly not a castle. Some had to sleep on the floor, and while they were resting, Tails was working on the machine with Sonic observing intently. The two tailed genius was wiring the new, red prototype chip with the machine that was designed for dimensional travel without the use of Chaos or Sol Emeralds, when he stopped to speak.<p>

"You know, it's kind of funny..." Tails began.

Sonic responded after a yawn. "What?"

Tails turned his head to him. "How green is for space travel, and red is for time, and how these are hardly different from each other, other than their colors."

Sonic wasn't laughing. "Point being?"

The fox stopped what he was doing to turn completely to him. "Well, doesn't that seem, familiar to you? ... Y'know, it was like that in..."

With all the time Tails had given him, Sonic's sleepy state suddenly got it. "_No._"

"Well, why not?"

"I don't care how much you like that crazy webcomic with a terrible fanbase, it's a coincidence, just; _no._"

"Well, I was just saying-"

"And quit making jokes nobody other than me would get."

"Er-"

"It's not funny if no one gets it."

"Jeez, I-"

"Will you two _SHUT UP!?_" Shadow spat louder than anyone's ever heard him shout before.

* * *

><p>Took a bit longer than the month I planned. Not much happened, but I bet you won't be able to guess what's gonna happen next.<p>

...

What's that?

...

You think you _can_?

...

...

...

WELL THAT'S _WRONG_

* * *

><p><strong>INTERLUDE: THE GAME<strong>

**"**That was handed to them on a silver platter. It shouldn't be that easy."****

The morning came, and Sonic's dream had come true. Early in the morning, the conversion from the flawed dimensional travel machine to time machine was completed. The teenage blue hedgehog was bouncing up and down like a kid on Christmas day. Only a few others were awake this early. Tails was woken by Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, and Blaze were used to waking up early, and Omega never sleeps. At least he doesn't need it.

"Psst, Tails." Sonic whispered. "Y'know how Blaze said she was familiar with Crisis City?"

Tails nodded while priming the machine for activation. "Yeah, that was really weird. Maybe it was just something she did? Her own time travel sessions?"

Sonic sighed. "Well, she hasn't been giving answers, so how about you set this thing two hundred years into the future, and I'll bring her along to drag her around until I get answers."

"I don't see how just being there would get answers..." Tails responded.

"Maybe if I find the Silver we know, hopefully one from after the point he crashed my party, he'd start saying hi and stuff. She'd feel more compelled to explain rather than play dumb or silent." Sonic reasoned.

"Well, if you think it would work. Nothing needs to be done to accommodate more people in the machine, so if you can get her to come along, go ahead."

Sonic nodded, and then made off to find Blaze, ready to persuade.

Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were sitting in the corner, discussing private matters. The feline Sonic was looking for was reclining in an arm chair, sitting in a combination of a curled up and laying down. Sonic pulled a chair from the table and sat across from her.

"Good morning." She greeted rather slothfully.

Sonic smiled. "Hey, I was wondering if you'd want to test the time machine out with me."

Blaze gave him a curious look. "... Why?"

"Doesn't take anything more to bring more than one person through time, so I thought why not?"

"What about Tails, or someone else?" Blaze asked.

Sonic took a breath in. "Tails has to make sure the machine is working properly. I'm not waking anyone up to go with them, especially not Amy. I'm not going with Shadow or Rouge, and Omega-" Sonic stopped for a moment to realize just how fun going through time with a giant destructive robot could be. But just for a moment. "Omega is probably caught up with his own problems. Orders, and stuff."

"**Well, I am sure it is not going to last long, what with how you typically treat your devices, making them either dysfunctional or misleading. And besides..."**

"You know, I don't think this time traveling is a good idea. Being introduced to us so quickly, I don't think it would be this easy to master." The cat argued.

"It's an opportunity I'm not going to be missing out on. And besides, I trust Tails." Sonic reasoned. "And don't you trust me?"

"I trust you. It's... it's just that..." Blaze responded, but was unable to finish her sentence.

"Well, come on." Sonic said, getting up, and walking toward the storage room where the time machine lay in wait.

After a moment of inactivity and unease, she threw herself up and followed him.

"**... How else would they know?"**

Tails saw that Sonic had managed to convince Blaze to come along as the princess slowly walked through the door. Blaze was intimidated by the large piece of technology. It was tall, wide, had a metallic ramp leading up to a sliding glass door. The metal was dark, cold, and somewhat dusty from having left sitting for months. It looked like a high-tech elevator. Perhaps this could be metaphoric? Whatever it was, this machine, originally designed to be a dimensional transportation device was not like the one she used. Hopefully it had different results.

Knowing that Sonic is impatient, Tails began to tell them how to operate the machine. "Alright, let me tell you everything you need to know to through time and come back. There's a lot involved, let me tell you, but it's mostly for me. You don't have to worry about much." Tails began his monologue of an explanation.

"First of all, the machine itself and everything inside moves through time as one entity. No disassembling and reassembling your molecular structure or things like that, as many sci-fi series handle moving through time and space. However, it only works the way it should if the door is shut. I have no clue what would happen if the door was open, and have no intention of finding out. So rule number one: shut the door.

"Second, in the machine, there is a big red button. When you haven't been sent anywhere in time, the button does nothing. But when you are sent off, and wish to return, push the button when the door is shut, and it will bring you back to the moment you left. To me, you'll be gone for a second; less, even.

"Lastly, don't do anything stu- er, _completely_ stupid. All science has on time is theories, and so I don't want you two going off creating alternative timelines and stuff. Not only would that may not work out as planned, you might return to the present in a timeline where something else was in the spot the machine appears, and I'll let you wonder what happens then."

"**Know? About _what?_ _The game?_"**

"Timelines, shmimelimes." Sonic scoffed at the theory, walking up to the door. "Just send us off."

Tails has had this discussion with Sonic too many times before to have it again when he's waiting. "I'm literally seconds from finishing. You two get in, and shut the door."

Sonic pulled the sliding door of the almost dastardly looking machine open. Blaze was apprehensive, but followed quickly enough to avoid rousing up impatience from the hedgehog. Sonic leaned against the wall on the right as Blaze shut the door, sealing the machine off from the outside world. She thought it would be fitting as she leaned on the wall on the left.

"**It is all about the game, to you, isn't it?"**

"**And how you play it."**

With a press of a button, Tails had sent the machine spurring into life, a dreadful existence for the cat, and to the hedgehog it was an anxiety building waste that wouldn't end. In order to make the wait less unbearable, Sonic tried starting a conversation.

"So what do you think it'll look like on the outside, when the time jump happens?" Sonic asked.

"Hm?" Blaze mumbled.

"Will we just see a red flash, or would there be something cool going on through that glass?" Sonic elaborated. "I don't think we'll be seeing anything too cool, but I'd love to see some Space Odyssey tier stuff."

Blaze didn't really care. "Yeah..."

"**In that case, you shall remain calm, for they shall know only how it plays..."**

Sonic noticed her unease as the machine prepared to jump through time, and it was contagious. Something was eating at her about the whole time traveling thing. But what? She said things happened when she tried a dimensional traveling device her scientists created, but what things?

Wait, the noble! Sonic's head shot upright from drifting downward in thought as the machine came ever closer to activation. He said that the closest they got to a dimensional traveling device sent her to a burning city. Crisis City.

A projected countdown appeared across the glass pane door, starting at five.

Sonic thought as he walked up to the door, looking outside, anticipating what will soon lay outside the door.

Whatever happened, he was about to find out.

"**... And, they get a _little tease._"**

**END INTERLUDE**

* * *

><p><strong>My internet hates me right now so I apologize for updating much later than I had hoped. It may take a while to post the next, short little intermission, which I would use to buffer this story as well as work on other projects. I'm sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience.<strong>


	8. INTERMISSION

**When you read the words "Everything clicked in her head.", go read "Goodnight" if you haven't. This is _not_ an advertisement.  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>INTERMISSION<strong>

With a red flash, the blue hedgehog and lavender cat were warped into a strange, and yet familiar place. Little over half a year ago, they floated here in this place, fighting the Eggmen from their worlds in their powerful super forms. There was one thing that had went strangely unnoticed from their first trip here, though. In front of them, was a pearly white floor; a bridge, of some sort. On it, a man and a woman stood.

The woman was fine, and fair. She had the appearance of a thin, almost petite woman. She was wrapped in black thin, clean and refined cloth, and wore a golden mask. Behind the mask, eyes as yellow as sunlight. She carried a parrying dagger, and a sai. Her hair was snow white, and Her face was only a few shades toward peach. She seemed to glow with the yellow aura of the Sun.

Or, as the Sun was astronomically name, _Sol_.

The man, on the other hand, was a large, mustachioed man. Broad shoulders, thick arms, powerful posture, thick, faded black hair, topped with a crown, a diamond its centerpiece. He was dressed in thick clothes, topped with a blue and yellow jacket of which Polish Hussars took after, and pants with an equal amount of flair. He did not seem to have a weapon, but he could

You could say, He was her _polar_ opposite.

The man passed agitated glares between those in the machine and the woman, whom was waving to the two pawns in their collective silence. She was smiling gently, however, the two time travelers detected She was hiding a much different intent behind Her face. Before the two time travelers could manage to get anything out of their mouths, they had been whisked away with a wave of the woman's arm, to their destination.

In the Exception, the realm between dimensions for the purpose of travel and fair game unbeknownst to all but two, the man and woman stand, having sent their anthropomorphic pawns on their way, as their separate contrasting, equally hateful plots in store sit at the ready to unfold.

"For your information, they'll be coming back through here once they decide to return to their time." The woman explained, Her hardly young voice unfaltering in sounding pompous and playful. "Due to the rules we set, we may not follow them into the future and observe their actions... Unless we can come to an agreement."

"No." The man answered, His voice powerful and full of contempt. "We've already bent the rules enough. I don't want either of us going back because of flaws again, even if we both would benefit from such a thing." He said this as He reminisced the last time they agreed to bend the rules; Tactically, He had the upper hand, but the absurdity of the situation in His realm was embarrassing, and had unsatisfactory future consequences. At least She would have some dignity as Her world began its descent into a hell.

That was the objective of their little game, after all.

Plunging the others world into chaos.

"You must be very confident with your world, in its current state." The woman replied.

"Indeed I am..." The mighty man said, His head held high. "... Solaris."

She despised His headstrong, stubborn mannerisms in ways words could not describe. With a disheartening glare, She sent Her gaze upon the back of His head. "As thick-headed as ever, Polaris."

"What is it you have in store for us now?" Solaris, the All-Powerful God of the Sol Dimension, riddled. "More blatant propaganda? For your world, or against mine?"

"You shall see," Polaris, the All-Powerful God of the Chaos Dimension, answered, a wicked smile stretching across His face. "In due time."

_When the blazing sun is gone,_

_When there nothing shines upon..._

Solaris grimaced, for He could be so unpredictable and irrational at times. It was hard to see into the dark world of His mind, even with Her being a god. Their powers were limited in this place between their domains. Even so, there was always the little specks of truths, scattered about that dark, empty head of His. To destroy those waves upon waves of little sparks in His head built around contempt, xenophobia and killing, the objective was not destroy Him at the game.

She had to destroy the game itself.

_Though I know not what you are,_

_Twinkle, twinkle, little star...  
><em>

* * *

><p>The amount of frustration she was having was unparalleled. Imagine reading a book. A good–no, <em>great<em> book. You love it, you love the characters, the dialogue, how easily you can picture it in your head; the perfect novel. It's really special for you because of how the characters are similar to your real life friends and enemies. It's like you and your friends are the main characters, no insertion needed. Now, imagine the last few pages of that book being burnt to an unreadable crisp, along with the libraries containing more copies of the book as well as the internet, so that you'll never know the true ending.

This is precisely how Blaze felt when she reached the end of her copy of "Of Mice and Men".

"Don't worry," Silver assured, "We'll find a library."

"We're both superpowered beings capable of high speeds, and we can't even get out of this city in a _month, _let alone _however long_ it's been. What makes you think that we will find a library, full of flammable books, when there's a fire demon that burns with a heat so intense, fire stretches over the ground thirty blocks around it?" Blaze retorted.

The two were seeking refuge on the a ground floor of a large factory building, choosing to rest behind a counter. The rooms for production were commonly searched through by other more aggressive survivors, and their location hid them well enough to ensure them peace of mind. While close to the monstrous demon, the demon was sleeping, and thus flames had retracted to only his immediate vicinity. Sometimes, it was actually possible to tell if it was day or night, but only when Iblis sleeps, so the smoke does not completely blanket the city. These clouds obscuring the sky would reflect the flames of disaster, acting as the city's main light source. When he is awake, the night is starless, and when he is asleep, it is bible black.

Silver turned to Blaze, laying down with her head against the counter, tiny flame alight to illuminate her book. Also in his field of vision was the outside, which had a small building, with a high metal flame-resistant wall built around it to protect it from flames. The outside was black, with only a dim red light of Iblis' passive flames.

"Well, we'll just do the same thing we always did: Proceed in the same direction we've been headed." Silver answered, not exaggerating their plan of action in the slightest. Except they had changed direction when they hit the giant impassable wall known as "the ocean". "We've got to come across a few libraries this way, and if we don't find one, we'd be walking right out of this place. After that we'd go to some other town, and look for library there. But until then, I guess you have to-"

A bright red light flashed, originating from the walled in building. It stopped him as he was finishing his sentence. Blaze sensed the disturbance on his face and speech, and put the book down, slowly standing up.

"... Wait." Silver finished, gazing at the mysterious building.

As a side note, the white hedgehog had just realized that the two wandering travelers managed to wind up back to the spot they had first met. Well, first met formally. Names introduced and that. However, that was irrelevant. The fact this is where they decided on their plan on heading in one direction and keep going that way was causing the two to seriously doubt their sense of direction.

* * *

><p>The two time travelers landed in Tails' workshop, two hundred years into the future, both filled with wonder, and empty on air.<p>

"Woah, was that _Freddie Mercury_ and _Lady Gaga_?" Sonic gasped, abandoning logic and reason and just trying to place the faces.

"Mercury, as in, the classical music composer?" Blaze asked, remembering the name.

Sonic was silent for a moment. Taking a large breath in, he responded. "Holy crap, I _love_ your world."

"He's dead."

"... as much as mine."

The two then acknowledged the outside world. Tails' workshop was dirty, well aged, and the room was cleared other than the litter cluttering the floor. Judging by the looks of things, it seemed the time machine was functioning as planned.

Sonic smiled. "Alright, so far so good. Maybe Silver at this point in time knows what's going on with all these Silvers."

Sonic slid the door open, and walked out. Yep, this was the future alright. Looking out a window, he only saw a tall, metal fence; not much other than that, though. There wasn't much light at all; all this place had was a dim crimson light. Must be night. In response to the darkness, Blaze lit a large flame in her hand, softly illuminating the room. She shivered, her fire bursting in size as she did, for a short moment. This room seemed all too familiar.

"Let's find out where we are, exactly." Sonic stated. "That fence has me curious."

The workshop's construction remained the same; nothing was added, or destroyed, for that matter. Sonic noticed there was one thing that survived the test of time, and strangely, wasn't looted; a map, featuring the world, and pins marking each of Tails' various workshop locations. He had several on the continent. One just outside –where they currently were– Station Square, another outside Central City, one near the Mystic Ruins, and so forth. He was working on other workshops in other areas. It looks like it happens, at least a little bit, since the map had been updated. There were lone workshops in Spagonia, Holoska, and Mazuri. All were connected by strings, which weren't there at first.

Perhaps some wanderer stumbled his way around the world, and started charting these workshops. Or something. Sonic thought, turning his attention away from it, and out of the door.

Outside, he was greeted with an annihilated city, the only light for miles around being fires and a large red light reflecting of pitch black smoke clouds. The ground was hot, and the sky was dark, other than that red light in the sky. Buildings were barely distinguishable, appearing in a two color scheme of crimson and black.

"Looks like Crisis City..." Sonic stated, looking for an opening in the metal walls that encircled the building. Blaze followed him out, and nodded, confirming the fact. He's been wondering where exactly he had gone through this before; and more importantly, how she remembered it.

He made his way around the workshop, and came across some weird chute-like object. Perhaps it was related to the updated map? Sonic tried playing with the console, to receive nothing. Although enticed with the possibilities the strange hole had, he wanted to find Silver. With a kick, he left the curious machine laying dormant, to be used by someone who has a key or something.

Finally, Sonic had came across the gate. Joyed that it wasn't locked by a stupid techno-key or something, instead taking the form of a water-proof valve system. This choice in design would have gotten Sonic curious about his immediate surroundings, if he didn't know for a fact the outside was most certainly not flooded. Spinning it open, he looked over at Blaze.

"You knew there were two Silvers. I want to know what the reason you didn't tell us this is before we go back." Sonic told her.

Blaze's expression immediately became frustrated as she tried to retort. "I..." She hesitated, looking at the ground, in shame.

Fully opening the door, he walked into the apocalyptic city. Yep, definitely Crisis City. However, the fire was gone. For a brief moment he wondered why, but this question was interrupted immediately by important matters. Sonic had just seen Silver walking toward him from inside a building. But it wasn't him who was all that important.

It was his companion.

Sonic did a double-take.

"What?" Blaze asked as she made it out next to the hedgehog, the fire in her hand shining brightly on the two of them in the very dark city.

Sonic pointed. "This is why you need to tell me about things."

Silver gasped. "What?"

"... Oh _great_." Blaze the vagabond groaned to Silver. "Look at what your time traveling has... _wrought_, on us. I told you not to trust that Mephi-"

"Look, we'll just go up and ask them what their problem is!" Silver assured.

"Sonic, did you know about this?" Blaze the princess asked Sonic.

"I..." The blue hedgehog shook his head. "NOPE." He announced.

The two groups met in the middle of the street, too perplexed for past rivalries to be even taken into account.

"Who are you?" The Blaze at Silver's side asked the cat at Sonic's.

"NO." Sonic interjected with a booming voice. "It's obvious she's Blaze, and it's obvious _you're_ Blaze. Let's avoid the "there can only be one" battle and the arguments. For now, at least."

The two Blazes looked at each other, paranoid, and not entirely accepting.

"I know it's going to sound crazy coming out of my mouth, but let's try to think like rational people for a moment, and ask the both of you questions." Sonic stated.

The rest of the confused quartet awaited Sonic's survey. Taking the silence as yes, Sonic turned to the cat to his side.

"You aren't shying your way out of this one." Sonic said, laughing. "Alright, you said you've been here before. What was that about?"

Blaze looked down. "To put a long story as short as it gets..." She sighed, and began to explain. "The scientists of my world want to be able to keep up with Eggman Nega, for a couple reasons. Other than the fact that they don't want to be left behind technologically, Eggman Nega is a genius. He can become a master in fields where we had no idea where to even begin. And so, after Eggman Nega crossed over into your world, they decided it was time to try to replicate his results..."

The cat girl paused, taking a breath in, her exposition being long.

"… Needless to say, it failed."

* * *

><p>Blaze looked around, completely unfamiliar with the environment. Litter, bits of dust, and such cluttered the room. This was confusing at first, but had a simple explanation: Perhaps the equivalent of the science lab back home in Soleanna is an unused building in his dimension? No worries. Everything's fine.<p>

She stepped out of the pod, very conservative in the use of her fire to light the room, only barely enough. After locating the doorway, she left the room, but as she got to the door to the outside world, she could tell something was wrong. The heat was extraordinary, and the inconsistent brightness and loud crackling was hinting at the world outside. Must be a big fire, but nothing that can't be quelled.

She opened the door, and was greeted by a tall metal wall, surrounding the entire building. It was tall enough she could not see over, however, all of what she could see over the wall was ruins. Buildings with large chunks missing, large chunks with buildings missing, and black clouds obscuring the sky. It looked like the scene of heavy warfare, or worse-

Blaze's heart skipped a beat.

_Where did everyone go!?_ She had thought.

Blaze rushed to the gate with the water-tight valve system. She knew for a fact there wasn't water on the other side of this wall; quite the opposite.

She spun the valve as quickly as she could, and when she threw the door open, she wasn't expecting the fire to get blown into her face. Frightened but not at physical risk, she stumbled back. She stomped on the ground, stopping the fire from flying at her, and putting out the fires blasted onto the house.

Gasping for oxygen through all this thick air, all she saw in front of her was fire. Her mind raced.

_Cream, Tails, Sonic, where are they?! _

Blaze made her way out the gate, the fire receding in her immediate presence. She closed the door behind her, and rushed inside a building where she could look around, hoping to spot the blue blur soaring through the destroyed city, maybe even with Tails and Cream in tow.

But no, as she scaled the building, all she saw was fire. Fire stretching across all the city's streets, growing more and more intense as it reached the center, which had almost been completely cleared, and the light was grossly incandescent. Growing more and more worried with each floor, she began making her way to the rooftops to search on foot for them.

_Maybe their fighting is what caused all this... though the concept of a city's ground on fire is all too... familiar..._

When she finally got to the rooftops, Blaze saw something in the distance. A giant, flying robot, and someone fighting it. The color scheme of the robot was easily recognizable; it was of Eggman Nega's work. Blaze was surprised to see Nega able to attack Sonic's world so soon after the first attack, and, if this was all his work, so successfully.

If he was the cause of all this, he will _pay_.

Blaze began sprinting toward the battle, ready to tear the machine apart with her friend. As she ran, the flying machine moved, and so did the combatant. At one point, it flew off the building, and the fighter jumped over the fiery pits and slammed onto the machine.

As it seemed, this action disturbed Him. With a powerful roar, Blaze stopped dead in her tracks to give a jaw dropped gaze at the powerful monster, formerly hidden amongst the flames, as it rose screaming at the two belligerents.

Iblis didn't not like anything that doesn't cackle and burn near him.

_Iblis!? The God of Destructio- I thought it was sealed in the Royal Emerald!?_

Blaze was stunned. The implications of this were many, and few made sense. While she was still, pondering the implications and how this could have happened, her eyes could only follow the movements of the large monster as it smashed the machine away from its domain with a powerful heavy fist.

As the machine was hit, she sprung back into a sprint toward them.

The giant machine was heat resistant, and wasn't smashed completely. The combatant was still latched on as it flew back toward the rooftops, by a stroke of luck. He jumped off onto solid ground before the mech crashed into a building.

Eggman Nega's machine recovered quickly, and it was badly damaged. The fat man in his machine floated over to his enemy, ready to unleash all the tricks up his sleeve. At this point, Blaze had jumped from a building onto a lower rooftop, with destroyed building obscuring her view of the fight from there.

As she leaped from that building to a large hole in the one immediately next to where the fight was taking place, a victorious explosion sounded. She quickly made her way through the charred structure, and saw the black coated doctor burst into view through one of the destroyed windows. He was flying away in his Eggmobile. Enlightened by the sight, she ran over to the window, ready to greet Sonic.

_Oh, I was worrying over nothing. Sonic's too good to fall in such a short time..._

"Hey, S-"

Blaze stopped as she saw the scene.

The hawk-like machine was stuck face down, with the back part blown out. Bits of the wings were on the ground, and a pole was sticking through the torso. That was all typical, except for the pole. It seems the pole was launched at it as a javelin- as far as she knew, Sonic didn't like weapons. Then she noticed that the person who fought Eggman Nega was not Sonic at all.

The white hedgehog turned to the call.

"Uh, hey...?" Silver responded. "Who are you?"

The lavender cat was subtly shaking as she realized that there was no logical explanation for any of this.

A painful moment of silence passed. When it was getting too much, Silver began talking. "Hey, weren't you-"

Blaze bolted away.

She simply gave up trying to understand.

Knowing Silver was chasing after her, Blaze didn't bother to look back to see how far behind he was. She just ran for home. She got to the building just near the walled sanctuary from the flames. The cat jumped from the ledge, and out of the corner of her eye she saw someone standing on another building. While she began to turn her head, she landed right on the small shack's roof. She clumsily rolled off and landed on the ground, collapsing as she landed.

The recovery was swift, as she ran inside the house. As Blaze located the room with the machine, a thud sounded, meaning whoever she saw there, they chased her. Without missing a step, she hopped into the capsule, and slammed the door shut. The shutting of the door with someone detected inside the machine triggered the return system.

Relieved, soon to be gone from this world and back to her home, Blaze looked through the glass as the mysterious person from before came through the doorway, and saw her.

Both their jaws dropped as they saw each other. They _were_ each other. The two Blazes looked at each other with an awestruck and confused stare.

"What...?" Blaze the wanderer said, moving closer to the pod at the peril of Blaze the princess.

Before any more questions, comments, and most certainly answers could arise, the pod and its passenger flashed out of existence, no longer of this world.

And that's when Silver came in.

* * *

><p>"When I got back to the labs, I didn't say a thing. I thought it would be better to have them not know, because it was all so hard to put into words and none of it made sense." Princess Blaze stated. "Plus, I was in a bit of... denial."<p>

"Hey!" Silver interjected. "That's how me and Blaze here began sticking together! I came in on her just after that flash. She turned around ready to incinerate me, but we've helped each other out before, and we decided we'd stick together."

The princess stood there, quiet.

"So, I guess you deserve a thank you." Silver said. "Without you... er, her, but you too, I probably would have been killed by now."

As if on cue, a crack accompanied by a soft gusty sound was heard by the four. They turned to the sound's origin to see a blue fire coming out of the side of a building, many blocks away.

"Speak of the devil, here she comes." Silver complained, as a figure jumped onto the street, details of it unrecognizable at the distance.

Sonic smirked. "Don't worry, I can handle her-"

"Oh no you CANNOT handle her." Vagabond Blaze interrupted. "Not even the Flames of Disaster burn as hot as hers. She cannot be quelled. You're best going home."

"Do you know who I am?" Sonic interrogated.

"A cocky blue dork who doesn't know how to live here." The cat retorted. "Now go."

The princess was a bit distraught by her other self's behavior. "Hey, don't be-"

"... Cocky blue _DORK!?_" Sonic shouted, pointing his finger at the cat as he began to advance. "I stopped a sentient barrel of lard from taking over the world on several accounts, defeated at least four giant monsters that probably make Iblis cower in fear, destroyed more giant mechs than you both have seen _living people_," Sonic was now immediately in front of her, on his toes to tower the shorter catgirl. He was poking the center of her chest as he raved on. "... I've beat _almost everyone I've ever befriended_ in a fight, and I've done this all in the past three years, on a monthly basis! I could grab Silver there by his hairdo and wipe this city's collective clock! Send 'em into next week! How about I slap you senseless with my _dorky, BLUE-_"

At that moment Sonic was thrown over the wall by Silver's psychic prowess.

"I-I don't need a ride." The princess nervously negotiated with the white hedgehog, before running toward the gate. As soon as she was past it, Silver shut the door behind her from a distance. Without any other delays, Silver and Blaze then ran off into the city.

Blaze turned to Sonic, who was sitting on his rump, crossed arms. He was commenting on his own rant.

"Should have just said that _Gorilla Warfare_ thing."

"Sonic, seriously?" Blaze consternated, standing over him. "When they told us to leave, we should have just left, not shout at them for a whole thirty seconds. We're not from here, we should take advice from people who are."

"Your concern is understandable, but I am _not_ a dork." Sonic retorted, rising to his feet. "And not being from somewhere hasn't stopped me from doing anything."

Sonic led the way back toward the time machine through the shack, as Blaze went on.

"Okay, but, you're still flawed. You can't really grab someone by their hair and beat others with it." Blaze argued. "Don't you feel you've been more arrogant, lately?"

Sonic, realizing the mistakes, accepted the criticism. "Yeah, but it was a joke mostly... Hey, since there's two of you and Silver, I'm kinda wondering what _my_ double was like. Any ideas?"

The cat girl played with the thought. Since this dimension's Blaze was in the future by two hundred years, her dimension's Sonic would maybe be two hundred years ago.

Sonic went up to the machine and opened the door. He turned around, to see Blaze had stopped. He could tell by her eyes, she was deep in thought.

Everything had just clicked together in her head.

Blaze shifted her gaze back up at the hedgehog she knew to be a hero. A young, brash boy, sometimes brazen, sometimes noble. A heads and tails man; on the heads side, smiles, rambunctious and daring, and on the tails, distant, collected, and observant. Places he wanted to see, people he wanted to meet. Charisma glimmering like the emeralds he used, and his eyes sharing their color.

_My God._

"What's wrong?" The trooper before her asked.

The girl snapped out of her nostalgic memories of bedtime stories, and answered shyly. "... Nothing."

Sonic blinked, entirely sure that was not the case, but said nothing as he walked into the time machine.

She returned to her thoughts for a moment. She had just got caught hiding something from her friend, because she couldn't figure out how to say it, and it wasn't something minor. It was big. And yet, here she was, doing it again, not even minutes afterward. It was a _disgrace_, she criticized herself. She had to _chew it up_, _spit it out_, and quit beating around the bush.

But trying to conjure the words at the moment, she couldn't find the right ones. Ones that wouldn't fumble out of her mouth. As a person of popularity and political weight, she usually had hours, or even days of time before she had to come right out and comment. On the spot response was most certainly not her strong suit, and she wanted to fix that. She knew she had to fix it. She had to tell him, instead of keeping it hidden. It's bound to get out anyway, just like her experience in this city.

But that was some other time. This is now, and now she was speechless. Her moment of contemplation was for only a moment, and she followed Sonic into the time machine.

Sonic shut the door behind her.

"Alright, so the future of my dimension is _fucked_." Sonic stated. "Everyone's assumptions on dimensions have been completely debunked. And on top of that, we're not counterparts. In that effect, neither are Eggman and Eggman Nega. That kinda came from nowhere."

Blaze wondered. She thought about why Eggman and Eggman Nega hadn't already figured this out, but then she remembered how Nega was a backstabbing insane man with an ego to upkeep. "Shouldn't we tell them? Our friends? Although, telling them would probably result in word reaching the Eggmen..."

Sonic nodded. "You're right. Some words slip by, and we could be fighting two sets of Eggmen and Eggman Negas." The blue blur recalled his previous adventure, laughing as he went on. "All we'd need to do is get our counterparts and we'd be set. I wouldn't be too fine about meeting a _third_ me, though. We got me, Classic me, _Sol_ me, and then what? _Classic Sol me?_ This is starting to get pretentious."

Blaze couldn't keep herself from giggling.

"And what have you got? Oh, I know. _Neo_ Blaze. _Chaos_ Blaze. _Super Neo Chaos Burning Blaze. I give up._" Sonic rode the joke out until its very death. "Anyway, getting serious now. I don't think telling everyone about this is a good idea, because telling two geniuses the truth will have them try to exploit it. And then what I just joked about would be a real thing. Tactically, it's the better decision not to."

"But you just told me about how I should speak up about these kinds of things." Blaze argued.

Sonic responded, his face expressing concern over how he was sounding. "I understand, but this is information that could help the Eggman more than us. Your situation, from how you would have saw it then, was that you saw your nemesis fighting a rival prince in a torn up version of my world. If it was actually that, and not something else, you should have spoke up. Good thing you didn't though, now that we found out no one you befriended was in any danger at all."

Understanding, Blaze nodded. "I see now." She murmured.

"Alright, good." Sonic replied. "As far as everyone is concerned until we meet them again, this event never happened."

For a moment, she tried wrapping her head around it all. She found all of this out of the blue, as one should. It answered some questions, but left more questions. Many questions, she figured, that couldn't be found by speculation.

Sonic, although you couldn't read it from his face, had the same thoughts running through his mind. There was an itching feeling in the back of his mind, some primordial instinct, telling him that he had fallen deep into something else entirely. Telling him that he shouldn't have done this. Telling him, "_You've met a terrible fate, haven't you?_"

Knowing there was a bigger picture afoot, but was in the shadows all this time to their spots in the details, they moved on.

"Ready to go back?" Blaze asked.

"Yeah." Sonic said. "Let's get outta this place."

Sonic walked up to the red, pill-shaped button, and pressed it. As the machine broke back into life, Sonic couldn't help himself.

"You can be such a dick sometimes, Blaze." Sonic joked.

"Oh, her?" Blaze caught that he meant the other Blaze. "Well you'd be like that too if you were alone in a wasteland where everyone wants to kill you."

Sonic responded quickly. "I figured that, but she has Silver, who from my experience is a naïve vigilante wannabe. How come she hasn't ripped him open yet?"

"Oh." Blaze replied. It was starting to become weird, talking about herself like this. "Maybe he's all she has. I mean, I have Marine, Cream, and you, plus I have a country to lead so I really couldn't care for the Silver from my world, but really, it seems he's all she has left... that, and it would be bad to just leave him to go her own way, because both of them would suffer for it."

"So, like a... a George and Lennie kinda thing?"

Blaze didn't get it. "What?"

"_Nevermind._"

Sonic walked up to the glass. Same spot he was before. The machine was getting close to being sent back, as made obvious by the noises growing ever louder by the second, and he certainly did not forget the strangers from the other side. He stood at the door, waiting to get a good long look at them.

Blaze managed to gather the courage to walk up next to him. "That place..."

Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Hm?"

Blaze crossed her arms. "The place where those two people were, that was the dimensional rift ."

"Yeah, what of it?" The hedgehog responded, looking over at her.

"How did they get there? When we were there, you didn't see anything like that, did you? Who are they?" Blaze turned her head to him, an uneasy look on her face. "_What_ are they?"

Sonic noted how the machine was about to make the jump through time.

"Well there's not much we can do. One thing we can do," He turned his head to the outside. "... is ask them."

With a tremendous flash, they were there once more, in that rift in space, before the mysterious couple. This time, the man was smiling proudly, but not as much to look immensely smug. The woman watched the other with cautious stare.

"Hey!" Sonic shouted. "Who are you two?!"

The man was preparing his response, when the woman came in front of him, smiling mischievously and intending to steal his thunder. Not letting that happen, He gripped Her shoulder with a mighty hand and threw Her out of the way, looking at Her with a contemptuous stare that could be felt by the two in the machine.

His prideful expression returned as He looked back at the time travelers.

"We are people who care for you." Polaris said. "Our actions reflect upon you greatly."

Sonic and Blaze ogled disconcertingly at the man, not satisfied with that immensely vague answer.

"Now I can tell you'd want more answers, but she's the one who invited you in here, and honestly, you two can piece together a lot with what you have right now." He stated. "She won't be sending you back here on my watch. To get more answers from me, you'll have to find your own way here for a proper, formal meeting. You in particular have before, Sonic. Now..."

The man rose his hand, bobbing His fingers up and down to bid farewell. Then, He swiped his hand.

"_Begone._"

* * *

><p>Tails blinked, and they were back.<p>

"Well that was fast." Tails joked. He began asking, anticipating the results. "How did it go? What'd you do there?"

Blaze was speechless, but thankfully Sonic knew what to say. His eyes darted about before taking a big breath in, and groaning. "OH COME _OOONNN, MAN!_"

Tails was slow to accept that implication. "What happened? I-it didn't work?"

Sonic internally marveled how what he said was a proper reaction to what just happened and what Tails thought just happened."No, it didn't." Sonic sighed, swinging the door open. "Not even for a second."

"I was sure you had left." Tails replied, his ears drooping down. "Well, that was a waste."

Sonic sensed Tails' disappointment coming in. To counter this, the blue dude went over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't take it to heart, man! It's just a prototype! After all, you _did_ hot-wire it to something that wasn't meant for it."

Feeling bad, Blaze tried to join in. "Yes, and you-"

Without drawing attention to himself from Tails, Sonic stuck a finger to his lips and mouthed "shoosh". Blaze got the message fairly quickly. Tails heard it and thought it was for him.

* * *

><p><strong>A couple apologies are due. First of all, I thought I'd be able to pump this out the week after the Chapter 6+Interlude update, but I screwed up in places and it needed rewriting, so sorry for the long wait. I failed there. Second, I'd like to announce that things are stacking up and I need to address them. If you couldn't tell, I've had this part in my head for a while now. WAY before I started working on this story, actually, so I'll be damned if I didn't finish this thing. How much stuff I put into this thing is so not funny, it started being hysterical on the account of shock humor.<br>**


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